Gunpowder and Lead
by it'sahobby
Summary: What does a nineteen year old girl do when she finds herself in the middle of the apocalypse? For Nikki Grimes the answer was simple, think of everything her Dad had ever taught her about fighting back and do her best. This fanfiction will follow the show as close as possible. *Eventual Daryl/O.C* I do not own The Walking Dead or anything belong to it, unfortunately.
1. Chapter 1

I watched as Amy carried a bucket over to where my Mom was sitting by the camp. "Any luck?" I asked, any small bit of food was worth it these days.

"How do we tell if they're poison?" She questioned back, looking at the mushrooms uncertainly. I frowned back at the bucket, none of us could risk getting sick in these conditions.

I shrugged to Amy as my Mom said she'd ask Shane. I decided to help Dale on watch, all of my chores were done for the day, unless Mom found something else for me to do.

"Hey kiddo," Dale grinned widely as I climbed onto the roof of the RV. "Boredom getting to you?"

"Big time," I sighed, plopping down on the roofs surface and stretching my legs out in front of me. "I just wish they were back already,"

"Yeah me too, but they will be, eventually," the older man reassured me as he held his binoculars in front of his eyes, as if hoping to see any sign of our friends from this height.

Six members of our group had taken it upon themselves to go on a run into the city a few days ago. It was almost as though I could see the worry start to creep through the camp for each hour we didn't hear from them.

I was worried for Glenn, he wasn't my family so to speak but he and I had become good friends since this world went to shit. I had given him a hug and made him promise me that he'd come back, "I always do," he grinned.

Glenn was carefree and seemed to see the positive side in everything, even in this world. He was a breath of fresh air to me since we gathered our group back at the beginning. Something that was hard to come by these days.

Amy had a sister out on that same run too, Andrea. I could see the worry lines increase in her face every time she glanced over the hilltop to the winding road leading up to our little camp. Almost as though she had tricked herself into hearing a car engine or a booted foot on gravel.

Daryl also had a brother out there but the Dixons kept to themselves, rather than share the time worrying with the rest of us Daryl preferred to spend his time hunting while Merle was away.

The rest of the camp gave the Dixons a wide berth but I figured out soon enough that they didn't bother anyone once no one bothered them. Well, Daryl didn't at least.

"Dale," I turned my head at my Moms call. "I'm heading out," I turned back to face the scenery we were looking down on when I heard her address my brother. "Sweetie, I want you to stay where Dale can see you, okay?"

"You too, don't wander too far, stay within shouting distance, and if you see anything, holler, I'll come running," Dale warned her before she walked away. I tried and failed to keep my eyes from rolling. Mom would be fine, there was no way she was gonna be on her own in those woods.

I felt my jaw clench at the thought of my Mom and Shane together. Sure Shane had helped us survive and taken us in when we had to abandon our homes but a simple thank you would have been sufficient in my book.

It made me scoff that my Mom actually thought I was clueless to the situation. I'll never forget the feeling of what I'm sure was a piece of my heart physically shattering when Shane had come to tell us that my Dad had passed away.

He was shot while out on duty with Shane awhile before everything went to shit, left in a coma. I had convinced myself that Shane would walk through the door supporting him. Dad weak but smiling at us none the less.

While we were all dealing with the grief in different ways I didn't think Mom would find comfort in jumping on Shane every chance she got.

"What's on your mind, Kiddo?" Dale asked, he had been watching me from the corner of his eye for a while now.

"Just thinking about Dad," I shrugged, not making eye contact. "I never actually believed that he'd be gone someday. He was always so tough."

"Your Dad would be proud of you, you're one of the toughest kids I've ever met," Dale smiled down at me as a grin spread across my face.

"He used to bring me to the station whenever I had a day off school when I was little, I used to sit at his desk and Shane and the others used to bring me all kinds of sweets. They'd tell me about whatever run they'd been out on, robbery, car chase, shooting. We'd go home and he'd always tell me to never tell Mom that I heard any of those stories cause she'd freak,"

I glanced up to Dale, he wasn't looking at me but he was grinning nonetheless. It was one of the first times I'd talked about Dad since he passed.

"I always thought he'd tell the guys to shut up whenever the stories got too violent but he never did, one day I actually told him that and he said he didn't mind cause he was always gonna protect me, that I'd never have to face anything like that as long as he was around." I felt my lip quiver slightly as I thought of my Dad smiling softly at me, his head tilted slightly and his hand on my shoulder. I swear if I closed my eyes and thought of it long enough I could still feel the hug he gave me right after saying all this.

"Sounds like you had him completely wrapped around your little finger," Dale smiled kindly. I laughed and nodded, that was definitely the words to describe mine and Dads relationship.

"Even during those horrible mid-teen years when I'd fight with him and Mom he'd always sneak into my room last thing at night to give me a hug and tell me it was all gonna be alright, that the fighting was all just part of it, that it'd never changed how much we loved each other,"

"You still have your Mom and your Brother, Nikki, be grateful of that," I nodded thoughtfully. It was rare that Dale ever used my proper name.

"Y'know it's funny I just automatically thought that if he died that I'd feel it, I'd know somehow, but there's nothing. Not gonna lie I'm slightly disappointed by it. I thought I'd feel him around or something like the movies but I dunno maybe it's just because death is so common around us now. It's literally walking with us."

Dale didn't say anything to this and in a way I appreciated the silence. Without saying anything I stood up and climbed down the ladder back to solid ground. Dale always managed to make conversations into therapy sessions or life lessons.

Carol, a timid woman with short grey hair was sat on a nearby camping chair, her daughter on her lap as they read a fairytale. Glenn had become accustomed to bringing the kids back books and whatever toys he came across while on his runs.

"Which is it?" I asked, Carol glancing up at me shyly.

"Cinderella, Sophia's favourite."

"Good choice, mine was always Beauty and the Beast,"

"My favourite was always The Little Mermaid," Amy joined, having overheard our conversation as she paced. I laughed, rolling my eyes, everyone knew that Amy had a fascination with mermaids. Something Merle, the eldest Dixon liked to scoff at. Daryl never said much but I could tell by his face he didn't care for the idea much.

"Amy, you're gonna make a trench across the camp if you keep going much longer," I teased as she continued her pacing.

"It's getting late, they should have been back by now,"

"Worrying isn't going to help," Dale called from the RV. As right as he was it was extremely difficult not to worry. How were we supposed to know if something happened?

I glanced over to see my Mom taking the freshly dry clothes down off of our makeshift washing line. Following her gaze I felt my jaw clench once more as my eyes met the sight of Shane teaching Carl how to tie strong knots with rope.

I should be happy that Carl had another man around to show him these things but I felt my blood begin to boil slightly at the thought of Shane jumping into my father's place as quick as he could. He could try all he wanted but they were shoes he could never fill.

Just as the thought came and left my mind I heard the static of the radio kick up, my head spinning to where it was kept on the top of the RV. Everyone jumped from the seats, hoping to hear a familiar voice.

I felt my heart begin to race when T-Dogs voice jutted from the machine, despite the bad signal a sense of dread flooded the camp at the words "trapped" and "geeks".

"T-Dog repeat that, please," Dale spoke through the radio as he fiddled with the dials, trying to get a clearer service. I felt a lump in my throat when the static continued to jump from the radio but there was no more from T-Dog or any of our friends.

"He said the department store," I heard Mom mentioning. Every scenario possible was running through my head. They had to make it back.

I looked towards Shane "We can't leave them out there," My hands were shaking but my voice was steady.

"No," Shane cut me off almost immediately. "We do not go after them, we do not risk the rest of the group, ya'll know that."

"So we're just gonna leave her there?" Amy piped up, I could hear the anger in her voice.

"Look Amy I know this isn't easy," Shane started forward, rubbing the back of his neck. My eyes narrowed at him as I felt my blood starting to boil again.

"They all went out there to help us?" I was aware of my voice raising and the stern glance my Mom shot in my direction but right now I was ignoring her.

"I know," Shane turned towards me, he was putting on a voice of trained sympathy, one I didn't appreciate right now. "And they all knew the risks, right? So if they're trapped, they're gone, so we just have to deal with that, there's nothing we can do,"

"She's my sister!" Amy was now standing beside me, fire burning in her eyes as she looked up at Shane, her jaw set. "You son of a bitch."

I didn't break my eye contact with Shane as Amy ran towards the tent she shared with Andrea.

"You don't talk me down like I'm a kid you're trying to patronize." I told him firmly, making myself as tall as possible. "And we don't leave people to die when we don't even know the circumstances they're in."

"They're trapped Nikki, if we go out there we all get killed!" Shanes' voice was now starting to rise.

I opened my mouth to retaliate but Dale cut across me. "Now maybe we aughta think this through before we act on anything, it's not a nice situation to be in, making these decisions,"

Making sure to give Shane the dirtiest look I could manage I turned on my heel and stalked away from the group of people that we shared a camp with. The group of people who were supposed to protect each other.

I could feel the angry tears stinging at my eyes as I thought of Glenn and the others trapped by the walkers. They had to make it back.

Amidst the desperation to see my friends again there was deep anger for Shane. Dad would never leave a man behind. You protect who you can, that's what Carl and I grew up knowing.

Shane didn't have the guts to be leader of this group and people needed to start realizing it.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been awhile since we got the radio call from T-Dog, things were still tense around camp. I could see that everyone was worried, but everyone was also too afraid to stand up to Shane.

I was hanging clothes on the line, trying hard not to listen to the conversation Shane was having with Carl about catching frogs. It wasn't serving as a very good distraction for Carl as Mom chopped away at his hair with a pair of old scissors. For the love of God would the child just stop fidgeting already?

"I would rather eat Miss Piggy," My head snapped up at my Moms words, a grin twitching at the corners of my mouth. "Yes that came out wrong."

Moms eyes met mine and she returned my smile for a few seconds before going back to tackling Carls hair.

As I worked through my chores I did my best to distract myself from the absence of Glenn and the others. I wonder does losing people in this life ever get easier?

Just as the thought entered my head I looked up to the sound of boots on gravel. Shane was coming towards me, his expression soft. I felt my jaw set as I went back to throwing sticks on the fire.

"Nikki how long have I known you?" Shane asked, I tried to stop myself rolling my eyes. He knew the answer to the questions all too well so I just threw him another dirty look and continued staring at the orange flame in front of me. "Since you were born, that's how long."

"I hope you're going somewhere with this? Or should I prepare myself for a trip down memory lane?"

"This life is tough, it's a lot different to the one we knew. I can't let anyone else die.. can't let you die." Shane muttered the last part, I glanced at him to see that he too was focusing on the orange flame. "I'm not trying to be your Dad, Nikki. Hell, I miss him so much sometimes it really does hurt."

"You don't owe us anything, you don't have to keep us alive." I heard my tone soften as I looked at him. I knew Shane was grieving for my Dad too. Sometimes I forget that he knew him a lot longer than I did.

"Not doing it cause I have to, kid, I know what you're thinking, wanting to go after the others and try and save them. You think like your Dad, but we just don't live in that world anymore. Things are different now, it's a fight for survival."

My head tilted at his words, could he be right? It was hard for me to grasp the possibility of leaving people to die when there was a chance of us helping but maybe I was just stuck in the old way of thinking. Shane had done a pretty good job at keeping us alive up until now.

I finally made eye contact with my Dads best friend and nodded slowly. Silently promising him to at least think of a way to come around to this idea. He pulled me in for a quick hug, kissing my cheek before pulling away.

"I was at the hospital after you were born, kid. I don't plan on being at your funeral." He grasped my arm tightly before letting go. Before I could decide on whether or not I had just seen a sheen of tears across his dark eyes the sound of a car alarm made my head spin to where Dale was on look out.

"Talk to me Dale." Shane snapped into action, hand on his gun as he sprinted the few short feet to the RV.

"Can't tell yet," Dale said as he pulled his binoculars in front of his eyes.

"Is it them? Are they back?" I tried to ignore the desperate tone of Amy's voice but I'm sure my expression read the same.

"A stolen car is my guess," Dale looked disbelieving as he lowered the binoculars. The car was now close enough to the camp to make out along the winding road. I could see a flash of red now and again between the mountainside and treetops.

Everyone in the camp held their breaths as the car pulled along the final bend. Coming to rest in the camp. The alarm was deafeningly loud but I felt my hand go to the knife hanging by my side as I went into defense mode.

As the door of the car opened my breath came out in a large sigh as relief flooded my body. I could hear Dale shouting something but all of my senses were focused on the boy in front of me. Glenn was stood smiling, looking as though he'd just won the lotto.

A small laugh of relief left my body as I grabbed Glenn into a hug.

"I don't know how!" Glenn called back to Dale. I assumed it was about the still blaring alarm as all of the men gathered to figure out how to knock it off.

Despite Amy's pleas for information on Andrea I couldn't keep the grin off my face. My friend came back. Smiling like a Cheshire cat at that.

Despite the fact that Jim had unplugged the battery from the car, finally silencing the alarm, my ears were still ringing. Another sigh of relief went through my body as Glenn confirmed everyone was okay.

"But, Merle not so much," Glenn grimaced, he had a look of pity on his face even though he was vocally not very fond of the Dixons.

"Are you crazy driving this wheeling bastard up here? You trying to draw every walker for miles?" A stab of annoyance pierced me at Shanes words. No one really even cared that Glenn just told us that Merle could be hurt or worse. If it was any of the others we'd all be beside ourselves.

"What's wrong with Merle?" I asked Glenn but he was too distracted by Shane and Dales discussion on the car alarm and the walker attention it would attract.

"I'm sorry," Glenn shrugged at Dales scolding. "I got a cool car." He looked from face to face as if this was compensation for any possible walker attacks. I couldn't help but grin, the car was pretty sweet. Maybe I could convince Shane to let me go on the next run with Glenn, then I'd be able to drive it.

The sound of a large truck pulling up saved Glenn from anymore scolding as everyone turned expectantly too it. Amy was practically bobbing on the balls of her feet trying to see who was inside.

I smiled to myself as Andrea stumbled from the truck, Amy running to her at a rapid pace.

"Think they'll forget about it pretty soon." I muttered to Glenn, clapping him on the shoulder before turning towards the car. "How fast did you get to go?"

Maybe keeping this car would be the one small reward we got for surviving so far.

"I don't even know I just kept the accelerator to the floor it was insane. I never thought I'd ever get to drive a car like that."

"How'd you guys get out of there anyway?" Shane asked, his head turning away from where my Mom and brother stood.

"New guy, he got us out," Glenn explained, my interest perked at this. There was always some form of anticipation when a new person got introduced.

"Hey helicopter boy, come say hello!" Morales shouted from somewhere behind me. The look on Shanes face made me frown slightly before turning to see the new guy.

And just like that, all of my breath had left my body. It felt like an iron fist had punched me right into the gut.

I'd seen that sheriff uniform before. It had picked me up from school. Had come into my room after a long day at work to ask how my day had been.

My brain hadn't even registered that I was running until I slammed into the person wearing the uniform. Sobs racked through me as I clung to him with all I had.

His scent filled my nostrils, bringing a flood of childhood memories with it.

I pushed myself back, but kept a tight grip on his shoulders, just in case he disappeared again. Tears were currently trying to take over my eyes, flowing freely as they went but I could still see the face in front of me.

The face I never thought I'd see again. The face that I got my smile from, the slight crinkle to my eyes when I laughed, and although we didn't share the same color eyes, his too were fighting a battle with a flood of tears.

Carl had ran towards us, screaming, he was swept into strong arms and Mom joined us shortly after.

All of us crying on top of each other.

But we were back together again. I had my entire family back.


	3. Chapter 3

_Thank you all so much for the reviews and the follows and favorites on this story. I love the idea I have for this fanfiction so I'm so happy that people are enjoying this along with me! Please, continue to review and tell me your thoughts as I love hearing them!_

 _There's some very cute Glenn in this chapter cause Glenn is just the cutest anyway._

 _Also, a sickle is a kind of large curved blade with a handle. Just in case anyone didn't have a clue what kind of weapon I had chosen for Nikki!_

 _Thank you all again for the support! Here's chapter 3!_

* * *

"Disoriented." My Dad uttered the word that made me grimace. We couldn't get our heads around the world we now lived in and we saw it spreading out from the beginning. I could only imagine what my Dad went through when he woke up from his coma to find the world completely changed.

"Fear, confusion all those things but disoriented comes closest." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt my body react by relaxing when I got a whiff of Dads scent. It wasn't his usual cologne or aftershave but it was the smell that lingered under all of those things while I was growing up, now it was just mixed with dirt and sweat.  
He was sat on one of the logs that surrounded the small fire at the camp. Me and Mom on either side of him while Carl sat in between his legs, every now and again he would strain his neck to look up at Dad, as if reassuring himself that he was really there. I found myself doing the same thing now and again.

"I felt like I'd been ripped out of my life and put somewhere else, for a while I thought I was trapped in some coma, dream, something I might not wake up from. Ever."

A shiver ran down my spine at these words as I thought about how I was accepting the fact that my Dad was never gonna wake up, never gonna make eye contact with me before rolling his eyes playfully at something Mom had said. It was scary to think that he was on the brink of accepting the same fate himself.

"Mom said you died." Carl muttered. My eyes automatically flickered to Shane, who looked all the more tense all of a sudden.

"She had every reason to believe that, don't you ever doubt it." Dad told him gently. My eyes narrowed as Shane glanced at my Mom. Was that guilt?

"When things started to get really bad they told me at the hospital that they were gonna transfer the other patients to Atlanta. It never happened." Mom told us.

"Well I'm not surprised after Atlanta fell."

My jaw tightened as Dad continued to tell Shane how grateful he was that he had kept us all alive. Since I got over the shock of having my Dad back with us the first concern in my head was what was gonna happen between Mom and Shane. Were they gonna tell him or would I have to?

Either way he had to know eventually but my heart ached to think of the devastation on Dads face.

"There go those words falling short again," Dale quipped, lightening the mood considerably.

The sudden sound of crackling wood made me jump, my head turned towards the second fire burning around the Peletier camp. Ed, a tall, large man had just dumped a log on the nearly quenched fire, causing it to spark up again.

"Hey Ed," Shane called. "Wanna rethink that log?"

"It's cold man." Carol, Eds wife, diverted her eyes immediately, taking a great interest in the flames in front of her. Everyone here knew what Ed was like. Sophia cowered too easily at the sight of her Dad and Carol would do anything to give him what he wanted just to keep the peace.

"Cold don't change the rules, does it? Keep our fires low, just embers so we can't be seen from a distance, right?" Shane recited, his face tense, trained authority flowing in his voice.

"I said it's cold, so why don't you mind your own business for once?" Ed replied, not looking bothered about the tense glare Shane was now sending in his direction.

My gaze met Glenns as Shane stood up, huffing as he went. He and Ed muttered between them before Shane removed the log from the fire and stamped it out.

"'Preciate the cooperation." Shane muttered as he walked back over to our small gathering.

"There's one more thing, guys," I finally spoke up, looking to each face in the camp. "What about Daryl?"

"He won't be happy to hear his brother was left behind." Dale joined in, nodding along.

"I'll tell him, I dropped the key, it's on me." T-Dog spoke up.

"I cuffed him, that makes it mine." Dad shrugged.

"Guys, it's not a competition." Glenn said. "I don't mean to bring race into this but it might sound better coming from a white guy."

I frowned slightly at my best friend for this comment. "Daryl isn't like Merle."

"He's not much better, you have to admit that." Glenn shrugged looking slightly apologetic.

"He's not like Merle, ya'll just paint them with the same brush just cause they're brothers." I said sternly. "I'd hate for that to happen to me… I'm nothing like squirt here." I added, shoving Carl's head slightly causing him to frown up at me while Mom and Dad chuckled lightly.

"Look, I did what I did." T-Dog sighed.

"We could lie." Amy suggested from her spot beside Andrea.

"No." I said loudly. "He deserves to know the truth."

"Merle was out of control," Andrea shrugged. "Something had to be done or he'd have gotten us killed, that's what we tell Daryl. The truth." She turned towards Lori. "Your husband did what was necessary and Merle getting left behind is nobody's fault but Merles."

"And that's what we tell Daryl?" I was happy to hear the disbelief in his voice. "I don't see a rational discussion to be had from that, do you? Word to the wise, we're gonna have our hands full when he gets back from his hunt."

"Nikki, you seem to be the only one here that doesn't irritate Daryl, what if you tell him?" Amy suggested, one shoulder rising in a half shrug as she looked over to me.

"No." I was surprised to hear both my Dads and T-Dogs voice before a word left my mouth. In all honesty, I don't think I'm the only one that doesn't irritate Daryl. I'm just the only one that treats him the same as everyone else in the camp while respecting his privacy. Daryl just didn't socialize like the rest of us so there was no point in trying to force conversation from him.

"I did what I did." T-Dog spoke up once more, looking frightened but determined anyway.

"We were all scared, we all ran." Andrea said. "What's your point?"

"I stopped long enough to chain that door, the staircase is narrow, maybe half a dozen geeks can squeeze against it at a time, it's not enough to break through there. My point? Dixon's alive and he's still up there, handcuffed on that roof. That's on us." T-Dog finished before standing up and disappearing into his tent without another word.

A tense atmosphere was left to linger around the fire until my Mom spoke up, her voice seeming to break it.

"What are we gonna do about sleeping arrangements actually?" She sat forward slightly in order to see me around Dad. "With your father back you could sleep on the floor with Carl?"

"Sorry do you want me to be constantly exhausted?" My eyebrows shot up in her direction. "He kicks in his sleep and grinds his teeth, either I sleep all day or he gets strangled in the middle of the night by me."

"There's enough room in my tent for another sleeping bag." Glenn suggested, shrugging. He slept in his own small tent, neither of us were very tall and we were both scrawny so I imagine it wouldn't be hard for us to share.

"Oh my god, roomie!" I smiled, causing Andrea and Amy to laugh as Glenn and I high fived.

"Eh should I know something here?" Dad asked, there was amusement in his voice but I could hear the underlying tone. Apparently Glenn didn't miss it either.

"Oh, um, no definitely not, sir?" Gleen stuttered looking frightened, I found this hilarious.

"Sir? He was helicopter boy about two hours ago?" I laughed causing Glenn to go bright red.

"Nikki and Glenn are just good friends, they look out for each other." Mom reassured Dad.

"Yeah he's like my straight, gay best friend." I explained.

"And that right there is the deepest friend zone you will ever find, people." Glenn laughed, clapping me on the back.

Dad seemed to accept that what we were saying was the truth after that and got over me and Glenn sharing a tent together.

After I moved my sleeping bag and few small belongings to the much smaller tent I said goodnight to my parents and brother, hugging and kissing each of them and crawled into the tiny one man tent beside Glenn.

Our sleeping bags both just about fit in. With them pushed as far to the edges of the tent as they could go there was even a little space in between us with headroom at the top to keep our belongings.

"If you snore I will kill you, I know how to use a gun." I warned, zipping up my sleeping bag.

"I know, I've seen you use it." Glenn laughed, referring to all of the runs we've been on together.

Silence fell between us as we both lay on our backs staring at the ceiling of the tent.

"I'm really glad you got your Dad back, kid." Glenn said sincerely. I ignored the fact that he used Dales nickname for me even though there was only a couple of years between us.

"Yeah I'm glad too," I smiled in spite of myself. "Thanks for bringing him back."

Glenn didn't say anything, just reached his left hand out to grasp my right, squeezing my fingers gently. We let our entwined hands lay in the small space between us as we continued back to our silence.

"Hey, Glenn?" I asked, afraid that he had fallen asleep.

"Mmm?" He replied almost immediately.

"Maybe this world won't really be as bad as we think?"

My question got no reply, either he had fallen asleep or he just didn't want to burst my bubble but in the end I was grateful for the silence.

For tonight at least, I could finally dream of happy things.

When I woke the next morning Glenn was already gone from the tent. I rubbed my eyes blearily. I had to take a moment to think about yesterday and determine in my own head whether it had been a dream or not. When I was finally sure that it was in fact real and I had my Dad back after weeks of grieving for him I couldn't stop the grin that spread across my face.

Emerging from the tent I looked around the open space, everyone was taking part in their chores for the day. Seeing Glenn and Dad stood at the cars I made my way over to them.

"Look at 'em, vultures," I heard Glenn saying as he watching longingly at the men who were taking apart his stolen sports car. "Yeah go on, strip it clean."

"Generators need every bit of fuel they can get." Dale spoke up, carrying parts of the car over to the RV.

"If it helps I know how you feel, I was kinda hoping to get a turn in it on the next run." I told Glenn, folding my arms.

"I thought I'd get to drive it at least a few more days." He muttered.

"Maybe we'll get to steal another one someday." Dad attempted to console him, patting him on the back before walking away.

We stood watching as the car was stripped of everything it had to offer.

"You grind your teeth in your sleep." Glenn sighed, turning to me slightly.

I looked at him disbelievingly, I knew I was the quietest sleeper there is so I couldn't help get slightly offended by this. A laugh left my mouth just before I began to reply but the words didn't make it out before a blood curdling scream ripped through the camp.

My head spun in the direction it came from.

"Carl?" Mom shouted, her and Dad immediately sprinting in the direction of the cry. I didn't hesitate before running after them, grabbing my handgun and sickle as I went.

I could hear the pounding feet of the others behind me as I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. If something had happened to Carl.

A shot of relief went through me as Carl and Sophia ran towards us, both seeming unscathed.

I watched as Mom hugged Carl tightly, checking him over for scratches or bites. After he had reassured us both that he was okay I sprinted in the direction Dad, Morales, Shane and Glenn had gone, stopping short when I found them all gathered around a deer, lying on it's side, it's eyes were unfocused and a single arrow was protruding from its hide.

But the sight that had stopped us all short was that of the walker that was kneeling at the deers throat. Ripping into it with a savageness no living being could master.

I watched in horror as the men all began taking turns beating the walker to the ground, repeatedly hitting it with the butt of their weapons but failing to kill it. I composed myself quick enough to rush forward and bring my sickle down on the back of the monsters neck that was exposed.

Slicing right through it the walkers body lay unmoving as its head rolled away, still snarling and biting.

"That's the first one we had up here, they never get this close." Dale said, shaking his head.

"They're running out of food in the city," Jim spoke up, glancing to each one of us.

Suddenly the bush began to shudder behind Jim, who spun around quickly. We all snapped into our defensives, my hand gripping the handle of the sickle which was now dripping walker blood.

I tried my best to scan the bush around us, looking for the source of the noise as everyone else did the same. Shane stood before us with his gun raised, ready to pull the trigger.

"Ugh, Jesus." Shane muttered, lowering his gun as Daryl appeared from behind the trees.

"Son of a bitch." Daryl raged, stalking forward to what was clearly his prey before it was walker dinner.

"That's my deer," He grumbled on. "Look at it all gnawed on by this filthy, disease baring, motherless, poxy, bastard." He decided to vent his anger by aiming kicks at the lifeless walker body as he spoke.

"Calm down son, that's not helping." Dale sighed.

"What d'you know about it, old man?" Daryl started forward, walking until he was almost nose to nose with Dale. I sighed internally, Daryl never made it very easy to defend him. "I've been tracking this deer for miles, was gonna drag it back to camp, cook us up some venison," We were all glancing at each other as we watched Daryl go over to the deer to retrieve his arrows. "What do you think? Can we cut around this chewed up part here?"

"We cannot risk that." Shane shook his head, shouldering his gun.

"It's a damn shame," Daryl sighed. "I got some squirrel, 'bout a dozen of them that's all. That'll have to do."

He turned to look at the still snapping head of the decapitated walker.

"C'mon people, what the hell?" I watched as he lifted his crossbow, aiming between the walkers eyes. "It's gotta be the brain, do y'all know nothing?"

We glanced at each other once more, my eyes finally trained on my father who was watching Daryl's back as he headed back to camp. There was understanding in his eyes about what we were saying about Daryl last night.

How were we going to tell him that his only living family member had been left chained to a rooftop in the middle of Atlanta City?


	4. Chapter 4

_Thank you so much once again for all of your lovely words and support for my little story! I know it says in the summary but I just want to make it clear that this will be an eventual Daryl/O.C._

 _For the moment I want to concentrate on showing how strong and independent Nikki is and letting you all get to know her character before she's paired up with someone._

 _Also, I know there's not much character dialogue from Nikki yet but that will change as the chapters go on and she starts finding her place a bit more in the camp._

 _Thanks again for your lovely words guys! I always appreciate the support!_

* * *

I couldn't help but feel anxious as I followed the others back to camp. As much as I was determined to defend Daryl in the fact that he was nothing like his brother, both Dixons seemed to have a fiery disposition when anyone pissed them off.

Sympathy also racked through me as Daryl called out for his brother as we walked into camp. Everyone else just seemed to look frightened.

"Merle, get your ugly ass out here, got us some squirrel, gonna stew 'em up."

To my relief I saw Daryl laying down his crossbow. Part of me doubted whether or not he would hesitate to use it on any of us once he was told about his brother.

"Hey Daryl, why don't you slow up a bit, I need to talk to you." Shane said, leaving his gun back in the jeep. Daryl turned at this, the dead squirrels swinging from the twine hanging on his shoulder.

"About what?"

I couldn't help but notice the rest of the camp were standing under the canopy of the RV. No one moving. My heart hammered in my chest as Shane walked slowly to Daryl, scratching his chin as he went. Dad also following closely, guilt clear on his face.

"'Bout Merle, there was a problem in Atlanta," A small frown appeared on Daryls face at this, he turned to glance around the camp, suddenly becoming uncomfortable with all of the eyes on him.

"He dead?"

"We're not sure." Shane muttered, trying to keep eye contact.

"He either is or he ain't," Daryl's voice was starting to raise.

"There's no easy way to say this so I'll just say it." Dad spoke up, I sucked in a breath as he walked forwards until he was in between Daryl and Shane.

"Who're you?" Daryl's frown deepened as he looked Dad up and down.

"Rick Grimes." I saw Daryls eyes flick towards where I was standing, clearly putting two and two together, maybe even seeing the similarities between my Dad and I. He only hesitated for a second, however before his anger seemed to seep back again.

"You got something you need to tell me?" I flinched as his words came out sharp.

"Your brother was a danger to us all, so I handcuffed him to a roof, hooked him to a piece of metal. He's still there."

"Hold on," Daryl muttered, walking back and forth in front of Dad. "Let me process this. You say you handcuffed my brother to a roof, and you left him there!?" His voice was quickly rising to a shout.

"Yeah."

I jumped as Daryl swung forward, his fist drawn back, ready to snap forward. Fortunately he wasn't able to make contact as Shane tackled him before that could happen. There was a sound of logs hitting the ground as T-Dog dropped the pile he was previously holding and rushed forward.

My breath stopped when I saw Daryl's hand shooting to his pocket as he jumped from his position on the ground.

"Watch the knife!" I called to Dad as he quickly jumped backwards as Daryl swung wildly at him. Daryls arm was suddenly twisted behind his back while Shane had grabbed him in a tight headlock.

"You best let me go!" Daryl spat as he struggled to get out of Shane's hold.

"Nah I think it's better if I don't." Shane lowered Daryl to the ground, the latter still struggling against the chokehold. "C'mon man, we can keep this up all day."

"I'd like to have a calm discussion on this topic, d'ya think we can manage that?" Dad asked as he knelt in front of Daryl, his head tilting slightly. For a second I had a flashback from my childhood, I was sitting behind the reception desk in the Police department, eating sweets that Karen, the lady who worked there had given me. Suddenly two cops brought in a man who was struggling to be held, Shane and Dad had appeared and talked him down between them. I could still see them both in their uniforms using these exact tones with the man.

The sound of Daryl hitting the grand snapped me out of my reverie, Shane having thrown him from his grasp after Dad had given him a nod of approval.

"What I did was not on a whim," Dad explained, trying his best to keep on Daryls level. "Your brother does not work and play well with others."

"It's not Ricks fault," Every eye in the camp trained on T-Dog as he stood looking awkward, doing his best to look apologetic. "I had the key, I dropped it."

"You couldn't pick it up?" Daryl spat, still panting on the ground.

"Well, I dropped it down a drain."

A short laugh escaped Daryls mouth as he stood up straight, grabbing a fistful of dirt and pegging it in T-Dogs direction as he went.

"If that's supposed to make me feel better, it don't"

"Well maybe this will," T-Dog hurried on. "Look, I chained the door to the roof so the geeks couldn't get at him, with a padlock."

"It's gotta count for something." Dad shrugged.

Sympathy flooded through me as Daryl quickly swiped at his eyes. Dixons didn't show emotion but I was pretty sure Daryl was doing his best to hold up that trait at the minute.

"To hell with all y'all, just tell me where he is, so I can go get him."

"He'll show you where he is." Both mine and my Dads heads snapped in the direction of where Mom was standing, her arm resting against the door of the RV.

"I'm going back." My jaw clenched at Dads announcement, we had only gotten him back and now he was leaving again?

Half an hour later I had my decision made. I changed into jeans and a vest top, the heat outside was too intense for much else. Converse on my feet to help with any running and my hair tied back.

My sickle was hooked into my belt and my preferred hand guns strapped to my other side. I made my way to where Dad, Shane and Daryl were stood.

"We left him like an animal caught in a trap," I heard Dad saying as I drew up level to them. "That's no way for anything to die let alone a human being."

"So you and Daryl?" Mom questioned from her place on a log, cutting up some of the mushrooms Amy had found the previous day. "That's your big plan?"

"And me." I spoke up, my voice determined.

"No." Dad, my Mom and Shane all said at once, each voice more stern than the last.

"Sorry but you're not getting a choice, I'm going." I shrugged, looking mainly at Dad.

"I don't want you out there, you're safer here, your Mom and Carl might need you," Dad spoke quietly to me.

"They have the rest of the camp to look after them, I've been on plenty of runs with Glenn, I know what I'm doing out there and I'm a good shot!"

Dad was staring me down, I could tell he was about to shake his head and tell me no one more time but before he could a voice spoke up.

"She's able," I turned in slight surprise to see Daryl looking at Dad. "I've seen her deal with 'em."

I turned back to Dad, my eyebrows raised. He sucked in a breath, looking between me and Daryl before nodding slowly. I couldn't help but smile as Shane threw his hands up in the air, looking more frustrated than ever.

When Dad was sure no one else was gonna argue he turned towards Glenn, looking at him expectantly.

"C'mon," Glenn groaned, sighing deeply.

"You know the way," Dad explained to him, pleading slightly. "You've been there before, in and out, you said so yourself. It's not fair for me to ask, I know that, but I'd feel a lot better if you came along, I know she would too." He finished with a gesture towards Mom.

"That's just great, now you're gonna risk three men and your daughter, eh?" My eyes narrowed at the pent up anger in Shanes voice.

"Four." T-Dog spoke up, Daryl grunted from where he was counting his arrows, his head shaking slightly.

"My day just gets better and better, don't it?"

"You see anybody else here stepping up to save your brothers ass?"

"Why are you?" Daryl asked T-Dog, still concentrating on his arrows.

"You wouldn't even begin to understand, you don't speak my language."

"You're putting every single one of us at risk, just know that Rick." Shane spoke up, the lines in his forehead deepening. "C'mon you saw that walker it was here, it was in camp. They're moving out of the cities, if they come back we need every able body we got, we need 'em here, we need 'em to protect camp."

"Seems to me what you really need most here, are more guns," Dad retorted, his head tilting as he surveyed Shane.

"What guns?" Shane asked.

"Six shotguns, two high powered rifles, over a dozen handguns. I cleaned out the cage back at the station before I left, I dropped the bag in Atlanta when I got swarmed, it's just sitting there on the street, waiting to be picked up."

"Ammo?" Shane questioned.

"Seven hundred rounds." Dad shrugged, Shane dropped his head, shifting his weight from left to right.

"You went through hell to find us," Mom spoke up. "You just got here and you're gonna turn around and leave? Take Nikki with you?"

"I don't want you guys to go." Carl announced, my heart clenched at how small my brothers voice was.

"To hell with the guns," Mom continued. "Shane is right, Merle Dixon? He's not worth one of your lives, even with guns thrown in?"

"I owe a debt to a man I met and his little boy," Dad explained, talking quietly. "Lori, if they hadn't taken me in, I'd have died. It's because of them that I made it back to you at all, they said they'd follow me to Atlanta, they'll walk into the same trap I did if I don't warn them."

I sighed deeply, seeing a sheen of tears in Moms eyes. If Dad felt he owed someone, there was no stopping him. She knew that as well as I did.

Looking over to Glenn I tried to smile positively, he was looking a little green at the thoughts of going back to the city so soon after they had escaped.

"We'll be okay," I assured him. "We always come back."

"Don't use my line on me." He joked, managing a small smile.

When I saw Dad getting ready to go to the cars I made a beeline for Carl, bending down to give him a hug.

"We'll be back, squirt, don't worry." He nodded into my shoulder before letting me go.

"You be safe, stick with the others." Mom warned, squeezing me tightly.

"I always am." I smiled, pulling away from her grasp.

Walking to where the large truck was sitting, Glenn in the driver seat, I opened the passenger door and jumped in.

"What do you think are the chances of us saving Merle?" Glenn asked quietly, glancing to the back of the truck where Daryl was pacing up and down.

"Hopefully good, I don't like anxious Daryl."

Just as I finished my sentence Daryl's foot appeared between mine and Glenn's heads, pressing down on the horn repeatedly.

"C'mon let's go!" He shouted to Dad and T-Dog.

"Hey Dixon, make a little more noise, the walkers in the city might not have heard that." I rolled my eyes as Daryl shot me a look but continued pacing rather than saying anything.

Dad jumped into the seat beside me, loading his python with fresh rounds. I heard the shutters close in the back, signaling that T-Dog and Daryl were ready to go.

As Glenn took off Dad placed his hand on my knee, I looked up into his anxious face.

"You make sure you don't get hurt, whatever happens." He spoke quietly, a stern look on his face.

"We all have each other's backs, that's how we survive on these runs." I nodded, gripping his hand tightly.

The drive into the city was bumpy. The roads were eerily quiet. No one spoke as we all concentrated on whatever tasks could lay ahead of us.

When we reached a train track Glenn started to slow the truck, letting it rumble along the tracks.

"We walk from here." He announced as we came to a stop.

We all hopped out of the truck and jogged lightly down the track. Checking around us as we went for any form of movement or sound of a growl.

We followed Glenn to a wire fencing which already had a small opening cut into it, almost like a door. He unfastened the holding on it and rolled it over on itself so that each of us could squeeze through.

"Merle first, or guns?" I asked as we filed out onto the road.

"Merle, we ain't even having this conversation!" Daryl growled, glaring at me heatedly.

"We are," Dad countered back before turning to Glenn. "You know the geography it's your call."

"Merle's closest," Glenn panted as we continued jogging. "The guns would mean doubling back, Merle first."

We skimmed along the tall buildings in Atlanta, keeping as close to the walls as possible, needing to duck behind abandoned cars now and then.

At one stage a walker almost came too close, I tightened my grip on my sickle as I watched it limping past. Before I could react a hand tipped my wrist, glancing to my right I saw Daryl shaking his head.

I was almost afraid to breathe until Glenn opened an alley door into one of the compartment buildings and we quickly filed in.

It was dark inside, we went one by one, it felt like all of my senses were on fire as I followed Dad and Glenn through the building, Daryl and T-Dog bringing up the rear.

As we walked through the compartment store Dad held up a hand, signaling for us to stop before pointing at a woman that was wondering around the floor. Her hair almost looked as if it was rotting and her clothes were tattered. The unmistakable stench of death rolling off her.

"Damn," Daryl muttered, stepping forward and lifting his crossbow. "You are one ugly skank."

The walker fell to the ground as an arrow pierced through the skull, Daryl ran forward quickly to retrieve it from the corpse.

We continued across the room to the flight of stairs that lead to the roof.

My heart hammered in my chest as we climbed the steps two at a time. What sight would meet us at the top? I couldn't help but glance at Daryl as he ran slightly ahead of me, I didn't know who I was praying to in this life but I just hoped someone up there was listening and had kept Merle Dixon alive.

A slight ebb of relief washed over me as I saw the chain and padlock still secured around the door. T-Dog was right, no walker could break through it.

Daryl kicked open the door, shouting for his brother. As we all walked onto the rooftop confusion swept through each of us.

The door was secure from the other side, but there was no Merle up here?

A wave of nausea swept over me as Daryl let out a frustrated howl.

Everyone had stopped in their tracks to look to the place where Merle had been handcuffed to the piece of metal.

Merle was gone, but his hand had been left behind.


	5. Chapter 5

_This chapter is almost triple the length of previous ones so I hope you enjoy!_

 _Let me know what you all think, as I've said before I love hearing your opinions._

 _Happy reading!_

* * *

Daryl continued pacing up and down in front of Merles severed hand, his breath coming out in short bursts.

With a growl of frustration he quickly spun around, aiming his loaded arrow at T-Dog.

I held my breath as my Dad quickly raised his python, pointing it straight at Daryl.

Afraid to take my eyes off the situation I felt Glenn beside me, barely breathing as he watched the standoff between the two men.

"I won't hesitate," Dad warned after what felt like a ten minute silence. "I don't care if every walker in the city hears it."

Daryl seemed to struggle with himself before lowering his crossbow, his bottom lip quivering violently.

The tension seemed to cease between the men as all weapons were lowered.

"You got a do-rag or something?" Daryl asked T-Dog, his voice surprisingly softer than it had been before. I watched in slight disgust as Daryl took the rag from T-Dog and spread it on the ground, picking up Merles hand by one finger. "I guess the saw blade was too blunt for the handcuffs, ain't that a bitch?"

I watched in silence with the others as Daryl quickly walked to Glenn and shoved the hand into his backpack. Glenn closed his eyes in what I suspected to be an attempt to keep nausea at bay.

"He must have used a tourniquet, maybe his belt," Daryl mused, looking at the area of ground where the saw was lying. "There'd be much more blood if he didn't."

"At least that means he's still here somewhere." I shrugged, Daryl didn't look back as he continued on following the trail of blood Merle had left behind.

The trail lead us in through a door, back into the building. I gripped my sickle tightly as I followed Daryl through the room, I could hear my Dad and the others following behind.

"Merle, you in here?" Daryl shouted, causing me to grit my teeth. We didn't need to be drawing attention to ourselves out here but now wasn't the time to be scolding Daryl.

We walked through the building until we came to a wide hallway with what looked like offices on either side. Dad rushed forward, pushing me behind him slightly so that I was now in step with Glenn, T-Dog bringing up the rear.

"Had enough in him to take out these two sons of bitches." Daryl almost sounded proud as he examined the two walkers laying on the ground. "Toughest asshole I ever met, my brother, feed him a hammer and he'd crap out nails."

We each stared around the room, keeping an eye out for any walkers Merle might have missed, as well as Merle himself. A clicking sound told me that Daryl had reloaded his crossbow before we moved off again, still following the trail of blood.

"Any man can pass out from blood loss, no matter how tough he is." Dad said matter-of-factly before raising his python and leading the way through the large room.

"Merle." Daryl called out again, I was just about to open my mouth when Dad spoke for me.

"We're not alone here, remember?"

"Screw that," Daryl said nonchalantly, moving off into what looked like a kitchen. "He could be bleeding out, you said so yourself."

I glanced up at Dad as I passed by him, he was glaring at the back of Daryls head but met my eyes non the less, I shrugged slightly before following Daryl.

My nose wrinkled slightly as a smell grew stronger the deeper we went into the kitchen. Four flames were flickering on what looked like an old cooker. Realization hit me when Dad picked up an old metal iron, black matter burnt into the bottom of it.

"What's that burnt stuff?" Glenn almost whispered.

"He cauterized the stump." I groaned, realizing the burnt matter on the iron was actually flesh. Glenn went slightly pale as he refused to look at the iron.

"Told you he's tough." Daryl's voice was almost childlike. "Nobody can kill Merle but Merle."

"Don't take that on faith, he's lost a lot of blood." Dad grumbled.

"Yeah? Didn't stop him from busting out of this death trap." Daryl was now walking towards a window in the far corner of the room that was shattered, the trail of blood leading over to it.

"He left the building? Why the hell would he do that?" Glenn asked disbelievingly as he rushed over to examine the window.

"Why wouldn't he? He's out there alone, as far as he knows. Doing what he's gotta do, surviving."

"You call that surviving?" T-Dog spoke up, it had been the first time he spoke since we got here. "Just wondering out on the streets, maybe passing out? What are his odds out there?"

"No worse than being handcuffed and left to rot by you sorry pricks," Daryl fired back, his voice beginning to rise again as he stared T-Dog down before turning to my Dad. "You couldn't kill him, I ain't so worried about some sorry, dumb, dead bastard."

"What about a thousand dumb dead bastards?" Dad questioned, holding Daryls gaze.

"Why don't you go take a tally, I'm gonna go get him." Before Daryl could move farther than a few feet Dad had put a hand on him and pushed him back. "Get your hands off me!"

"I don't blame you," Dad tried to reason, the trained authority coming back into his voice. "He's family, I get that, I went through hell to find mine."

As Dad talked Daryl into being reasonable I glanced at Glenn and T-Dog, both were looking tense, even worried.

"We can see most of the streets around from the rooftop but if I were out there I'd be in an alley somewhere, if not inside." I said, looking to each man around me.

"Only if we get those guns first," T-Dog shook his head. "I'm not strolling around the streets of Atlanta with just my good intentions."

We found a secure office, Daryl and Dad made sure it was clear before we filed in and shut the door. Glenn quickly found a marker in one of the drawers and I pushed one of the desks aside to make room to draw out the plan on the floor.

"Okay, I'll go out to get the guns alone." My head snapped up and a frown creased my face as I stared at my best friend.

"Well that's not gonna happen." I shrugged, shaking my head slightly.

"You're not doing this alone." Dad said firmly.

"Even I think it's a bad idea and I don't even like you much." Daryl sighed.

"It's a good idea okay, just hear me out," He said desperately. "If we go out there as a group then we're moving slower and we draw more attention to ourselves. If I'm alone I can move fast." I glanced at Dad before kneeling to look at the series of squares Glenn had sketched out. "This is the tank, five blocks from where we are now, this is the bag of guns, over here is where I met Rick the first time. That's where Daryl, Nikki and I will be."

"Why me?" Daryl and I asked at the same time.

"Your crossbow is silent and if anything else should happen Nikki has a gun but it's gonna draw attention and there's limited rounds so don't shoot unless it's absolutely necessary."

"You got us elsewhere?" Dad asked, frowning at Glenns map.

"Waiting in this alleyway here." Glenn showed us by placing an eraser in between two of the squares.

"Two blocks away? Why?"

"I may not be able to come back the same way, walkers might cut me off. If that happens I won't go back to Daryl and Nikki, I'll go forward instead, all the way around to where you guys are. Whichever direction I might go I've got you all in places that you can cover me."

"I can cover you by being out there with you." I grit my teeth, I didn't like the idea of Glenn running into the streets on his own with no weapons.

"The plan is set Nikki, it's faster this way." Glenn shrugged as my Dad piped up, saying he didn't want me out there.

"Hey kid, what you do before all of this?" Daryl said as he observed Glenn.

"Delivered pizzas, why?" He asked, slightly confused at the questions. A smirk tugged at my lips as Glenn sat oblivious to how he had impressed us all with his plan.

I stood from a perch on the desk as I checked the rounds in my gun. I had three bullets, and my sickle. I found myself praying to whoever was listening in this life that I wouldn't have to use either.

As Glenn, Daryl and I got ready to climb down the ladder that led to the alleyway I turned to Dad, throwing my arms around his neck and hugging him quickly.

"You make sure to come back in one peace." He spoke into my hair, kissing my forehead quickly before letting me go.

"I will if you do." I smirked, he smiled slightly before watching me decent down into the alleyway after Daryl and Glenn.

I followed Daryl and Glenns lead by crouching low and running as lightly as I could down the alleyway. Stopping briefly behind dumpsters to check if the area was clear.

"You got some balls for a China man." Daryl grumbled as he loaded his crossbow up again.

"I'm Korean," Glenn huffed back, keeping an eyes on the walkers that were closest to us.

"Whatever." Daryl rolled his eyes as Glenn sped towards the opening of the alleyway. Daryl and I stayed crouched behind the dumpster, I automatically held my breath as I watched my friend disappear into the walker filled street.

Daryl and I rushed towards the opened gate, closing it over slightly so the walkers couldn't get to us if we were noticed. I knew my brow was creased in worry as I watched to where Glenn had now disappeared, running from trashcan to abandoned car to avoid being seen.

"Why'd you come today?" Daryls whisper came out as a growl, causing me to glance towards him, my eyebrows slightly raised.

"Didn't want to sit back at the camp wondering if Dad was ever gonna show up all over again." I shrugged, looking back to where Glenn had disappeared, I took it as a good sign that the walkers didn't seem to be disturbed or focusing on anything in particular. "And I know how it feels to lose a family member, even though I got mine back."

After a few minutes of silence I turned my head to glance at Daryl, he had a slight frown on his face but he wasn't looking in my direction.

"I'm gonna get Merle back, he's still alive." He growled. I chose not to answer him, I knew what the denial felt like too.

As we sat crouched at the gate I noticed Daryls head turning slightly to the left. Before I could comprehend what was happening he was standing up, his back to the alleyway entrance, crossbow raised.

I spun around too, raising my gun. There was a boy, probably about my age standing staring at Daryl and I with wide eyes. His gaze focused on Daryl.

"Woah woah, don't shoot me!" He pleaded, raising his hands slightly. "What do you want?"

"Looking for my brother, he's hurt real bad, you seen him?" Daryls voice was back to a grumbling shout now.

I clenched my jaw again as the boy shouted a name I didn't understand.

"Shut the fuck up." I spat, Daryl and I had both moved closer to him, both weapons were nearing his face. Rolling my eyes as the boy shouted out again I jumped forward and whacked him across the head with the butt of my gun.

He fell to the floor, still shouting as Daryl jumped on top of him, attempting to clamp his hand down on the boys mouth.

I heard the sound of running footsteps after it was too late as I felt a blow to my right hand, my gun being thrown across the alleyway ground.  
Crying out again as a leg came down on the back of my knee, causing me to fall into the dust. I grabbed for my sickle as a foot aimed another blow at my side. Pulling my knees up to my stomach I felt the wooden handle of the sickle, grabbing it I spun around, slashing it into the air, hoping it would make contact with whoever was causing this pain.

A loud cry told me I had succeeded, looking up I saw a man much larger than I was standing with one leg raised, the blood seeping down the shin of his trouser leg told me where my sickle had cut through.

I swung wildly again as the man looked up to me, fist raised ready to snap forward. He jumped back before grabbing my arm and twisting it behind me, I felt the sickle drop.

I was now facing Daryl who was on the ground getting hit repeatedly by another man carrying a metal bat.

I was lifted from the ground as the man placed a large hand around my throat squeezing tightly. Fighting to keep focus I struggled as my legs flailed in the air.

"You didn't survive all those walkers to be killed by a couple of thug morons." A small voice in my head said. I shook my head again, the edges of my sight going dark. With all of the strength I could muster I swung my leg backwards, the grasp on my neck disappeared right as the heel of my foot made contact with the man's crotch.

Swinging around again I pulled my fist back and let it snap forward, hearing a load crunch as the mans nose broke under the force.

To my horror both men stopped beating me and Daryl when they noticed Glenn standing in the alleyway entrance, both quickly sprinted after Glenn who had tried to run but failed.

I was doubled over, gasping for my breath as my throat tried to get used to the fresh flow of air again.

Daryl was laying on the ground, bloodied and bruised as one of the men hit Glenn across the face.

Before I could rush to Glenn, Daryl was getting up, raising his crossbow he took aim and shot an arrow straight into one of the mens asses.

I started forward quickly as they the men grabbed Glenn, a car pulling up outside the alleyway gate. Glenn called to me and Daryl for help as he was bundled into the car.

"Daryl, do something!" I cried, watching him raise his crossbow once more, but it was too late, the car had pulled off with my best friend inside it.

I quickly ran to close the gate to the alleyway, walkers were not coming over to see what caused all the noise in the alleyway. There jaws snapping and dead eyes wide as the fell against the wire gate.

Daryl quickly rounded on the boy who was now slowly getting up from his position on the ground, pushing him against the wall but my Dad had come running down the alley in the meantime. He pushed Daryl away from the boy, shouting for him to stop.

I felt all of the anger in my body begin to boil as I thought of Glenn being dragged off, plus my leg and side were still aching from the hits I had taken. I ran forward while Dad was distracted with Daryl and punched the boy straight across the jaw. Strong arms circled around me, dragging me back as I realized T-Dog had finally joined the scene.

He was dragging me back to where Dad had Daryl restrained but I could help but feel happy when I saw a trickle of blood leaving the boys now split lip.

"I'm gonna kick your nuts up into your throat!" Daryl spat at the boy. "They took Glenn, him and his bastard little homie friends." Daryl was jumping from side to side, Dad was now holding us both back as T-Dog rushed forward to stop the boy from running off.

Daryl was still shouting as I gave up the fight and placed my hands on my knees, my throat still contracting painfully, I had a feeling I'd be bruised later.

"Rick, we're cut off!" T-Dog shouted over Daryl, pointing to either end of the alleyway where walkers were now desperately trying to reach us.

"Get to the ladder! Go!" Dad called, I didn't waste time in running after T-Dog and the boy as Dad dragged Daryl behind us.

We jumped onto the ladder, one after the other, scrambling up it as walkers started to flood the alley.

T-Dog continued to drag the boy through the department store as the rest of us quickly followed behind. We didn't stop until we got to the office we had been in before.

The boy was thrown onto a chair, Dad and T-Dog either side of him while I leaned up again a desk and Daryl began his usual pacing back and forth.

"Those men you were with," Dad began. "We need to know here they went."

"I ain't telling you anything." The boy spoke, sitting back in the chair. My jaw clenched as I glared at him.

"Jesus man, what the hell happened back there?" T-Dog asked, looking between me and Daryl.

"I told ya, the little turd and his douchebag friends came out of nowhere and jumped us," Daryl continued pacing but kept his eyes on the boy the entire time. "One of 'em tried to choke Nikki to death."

Dad sighed deeply at this before turning back to the boy, he looked like he was finding it hard to keep a level head.

"Ey, you're the one that jumped me, puto." The boy shouted back. "Screaming about not finding his brother like it was my damn fault."

"They took Glenn, they coulda taken Merle too!"

"Merle?" The boy looked up at this, squinting at Daryl. "What kinda hick name is that? Wouldn't name my dog Merle."

I watched as Daryl stalked around the desk before drawing his fist back but Dad was too quick for him, jumping forward and pushing him away from the boy once more.

"You wanna see what happened to the last guy who pissed me off?" Daryl asked, walking over to Glenns backpack and taking out the do-cloth. Unwrapping it he turned around and slammed Merles severed hand down on the boys lap.

I couldn't help but let out a laugh as the boy jumped from the chair, scrambling to get as far away as he could from the dismembered hand.

Daryl jumped forward again, grabbing the boy by the throat. "Think I'll start with the feet this time."

I watched as Dad sprung forward once again, grabbing Daryl by the scruff of the neck and pulling him backwards.

"The men you were with took our friend, all we wanna do is talk to them, see if we can work something out." Dad reasoned, crouching down in front of the boy. I let out a small huff of breath, the ache in my side stabbing harder as my ribs moved with my lungs, I wouldn't mind letting Daryl pound on the boy a little bit but Dad had to take the reasonable way out.

I watched as the boy nodded once more before going into an explanation of where his camp was based. T-Dog kept a firm hold of him as he led us to the red-brick building his camp was living in.

T-Dog and I took a sniper rifle each from the bag of guns and headed in opposite directions. Just before I got to the brick wall I heard a familiar growling sound coming from the tree. The walker emerged shortly after, hands outstretched and limping in my direction. It's jaws clamping down repeatedly.

I waited until it was close enough to dive forward and grab me before I ducked under its arms and spun around, slamming the butt of the rifle into the back of its head causing it to slump forward, hitting the ground with a thud.

After I had climbed the wall I found myself looking down on a sort of courtyard. The grass had long since overgrown and it was wildly unkempt but it wasn't hard to imagine it almost being pretty in a past life.

I looked straight across to the opposite wall to see T-Dog there, lying on his stomach with his rifle pointed down to the scene below us.

Following his lead I lowered myself to my stomach and made my eye level with the scope.

Watching with bated breath I saw my Dad and Daryl following the boy across the courtyard to the large wooden doors. Both had their weapons raised.

As Dad and Daryl made it to the wooden doors they opened impressively. A small man walked out from the building, he was unarmed as far as I could see.

I was too far away to hear what they were saying but I saw the man glancing between Dad and Daryl.

My jaw clenched as the two men from the alleyway walked into the courtyard, guns raised. I focused my scope on the head of the man that had tried to strangle me. My finger was dancing on the trigger, only looking for a reason to pull back.

I relaxed slightly as the man in front made the other men lower their guns. As the exchange went on I couldn't help feeling more and more tense. If it was going to be simple it shouldn't be taking as long as this.

I felt my hand grip the rifle tighter as Dad gestured to where T-Dog and I were on either side of the courtyard, the man in front looking directly at us both in turn.

I heard the man calling for another of his men. To my horror no one arrived from the wooden doors. Instead, I saw Dad and Daryl looking up.

Higher than where me and T-Dog were lying, two men had Glenn standing on the edge of the roof, hands tied behind his back and tape across his mouth.

As Dad and Daryl made their way out of the courtyard with the boy I looked over to T-Dog. He glanced to me and shrugged before getting up and shouldering his rifle.

I decided to do the same and rushed down to meet the others.

On the way to a trailer we had passed earlier Dad explained how the men had wanted a trade of guns.

Once we got there, he placed the bag on the desk and spread the guns out, deciding which ones to give away.

"Those guns are worth more than gold," Daryl shrugged, resuming his pacing. "Gold won't protect your family."

"Glenn is family," I snarled at Daryl who glared back at me "He's worth more than every gun in that bag."

"D'you think he's really gonna give Glenn back once we hand them over?" T-Dog asked, glancing between the three of us.

"You callin' G a liar?" The boy piped up before getting a slap across the head from Daryl.

"Are you a part of this? You wanna hold on to your teeth?"

"Questions is, do you trust that mans word?" T-Dog continued as if there was no interruption.

"No, the question is are you willing to bet on it," Daryl answered back. "Cause it could be more than them guns, could be a life," He turned towards Dad. "Nikki's little boyfriend worth that to you?"

I narrowed my eyes at Daryl, my right hand curling into a fist again.

"The life I have I owe to Glenn," Dad said simply, ignoring Daryls jibe. "I was nobody to Glenn, just some idiot stuck in a tank. He coulda walked away but he didn't, neither will I."

"So you're going to hand the guns over?" Daryl asked, shrugging slightly.

"Obviously we're gonna hand the guns over you dick," I snarled, still glaring at Daryl. "It's not a question!"

"I didn't say that," Dad spoke quietly before Daryl and I could start fighting. I turned to him, my eyes wide in disbelief. "There's nothing keeping you three here, you should get out, get back to camp."

"And tell Lori and Carl what?" T-Dog asked, running his hand over his face.

The four of us stood, glancing to each other. We all seemed to nod in unison before started forward and grabbing a gun each. I could hear the boy groaning behind us as we loaded the guns, jaws set in determination.

Before we left the small trailer Daryl gagged the boy with a cloth, muting the risk of him giving our plan away.

The doors opened as we all marched across the courtyard, Daryl pushing the boy ahead of him.

As we filed into the building I was slightly taken aback by how many men there were with weapons. All built the same, strong. I swallowed my fear and kept in line with T-Dog. The man from earlier stepped forward.

"I see my guns, but they're not all in the bag." He frowned, looking to the guns raised in each of our hands.

"That's because they're not yours," Dad stated, he was wearing his sheriff hat along with the uniform, the look of authority fully back in place. "I thought I mentioned that."

"Let's just unload on their asses." The man that tried to strangle me was saying. I felt the bruises on my neck pulse as I aimed my gun straight at him.

"I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation." G was saying, his voice struggling to be kept level.

"Nah I'm pretty clear." Dad stated before taking out a pocket knife and cutting the ties around the boys hands. "You have your man, I want mine."

"I'm gonna chop up your boy," G announced, walking towards Dad, my gun changed position until it was trained on him. "Gonna feed him to my dogs, they're the most evil, nastiest, man-eating bitches you'll ever see. I picked them up from Satan at a yard sale. I told you I wouldn't hesitate to beat, are you woefully deaf?"

"No, my hearing is fine," Dad said, raising his gun once more. "You said to come locked and loaded." There was the sound of guns snapping as Dad, Daryl, T-Dog and I all pumped the guns once before picking a man to point them at.

There was a tense moment as Dad and G stared each other down. I was waiting for the nod as my finger tensed against the trigger.

"Philippe, Phillipe," A womans voice sounded from the back of the crowd. We spun to see a small, wrinkled old lady standing in between the brute, weapon-clad men.

"Go back with the others," The man that had tried to strangle me called back, clearly he was Phillipe. "Now!"

We all paused in confusion as the old woman spoke to Phillipe in her broken accent. Telling him that someone needed medicine. G glanced back at Dad hesitantly.

"Phillipe go take care of it okay," G ordered impatiently. "And take your grandmother with you."

"Who are those people?" The old lady asked, walking forward until she was in front of my Dad. "Don't you trouble him, Phillipe is a good boy, he had his trouble but he's pulled himself together."

I glanced to T-Dog who was looking equally as confused as to what to do. It didn't feel right to point a fully loaded gun in an old ladies face.

"Ma'am, I'm near to arrest your grandson." Dad explained, lowering his gun.

"Then what do you want him for?" She asked almost innocently.

"He's helping us find a missing person," Dad sighed. "Fella named Glenn."

"The young boy? Come, come, I show you." She smiled, her voice lighting up at being able to help.

I eyed the men as we followed the old lady through the dark room to the back of the building.

"Let them pass." G sighed, causing his men to step aside.

The old lady led us out of the building and through a large garden, we entered a second building and I realized we were in some form of retirement home. Younger people were there too but seemed to be helping the elderly with medication.

As we entered a large room with a stage placed at the back I spotted a small group of people gathered around an elderly man in a wheelchair.

"What the hell is this?" Dad asked, looking to Glenn who was stood watching Phillipe giving the old man an inhaler.

"Asthma attack," Glenn announced nonchalantly. "Couldn't get his breath back all of a sudden."

"We thought you were being eaten by dogs, man!" T-Dog said crossly, his forehead creased in a frown.

Glenn turned towards the corner of the room, following his gaze I saw three Chihuahuas sharing a leopard print dog bed. My eyes rolled towards the ceiling as I realized how little danger we were all actually in.

"Sorry about that." Phillipe said, gesturing to my neck. "I wouldn't have killed you, just wanted you to pass out long enough so we could get away."

"That's a great comfort thanks." I snarled back, narrowing my eyes.

"Guys can you come with us for a minute?" I heard my Dad shout to us as he walked out of the hall with G.

He led us into one of the private rooms which I assumed was his. After explaining to us that the elderly had been left to fend for themselves, their carers leaving them behind as the apocalypse hit and how after he had vowed to protect them as best he can and now having everyone looking to G for guidance, I watched as Dad handed over a number of our guns. At least it was for a good cause.

Shortly after that we left the retirement home and pretty soon we were back to walking along the railway tracks again, Glenn back by our side.

"Admit it," Glenn smiled, glancing to Dad. "You only came back to Atlanta for the hat."

"Don't tell anybody," Dad chuckled back.

"You've given away half our guns and ammo." Daryl sighed as we waked quickly back to the truck.

"Not nearly half," Dad rolled his eyes.

"For what? They're old, they're gonna die momentarily anyhow. Seriously, how long do you think they've got?"

"How long do any of us." I glanced to the ground at this comment, I didn't like to think of the answer to that.

"Oh my God," Glenn groaned as we rounded the corner to the truck.

"Where the hell is our van?" Daryl growled, looking to the now empty space where our van was once parked.

"We left it right there? Who'd take it?" Glenn asked desperately.

"Merle." As the word came from Dads mouth we all dropped our gaze, concern on each of our faces.

"He's gonna be taking some vengeance back to camp," Daryl sighed.

The only way to get back to camp now was to walk. We started on our journey, hoping Shane would be able to contain Merle as best as possible.

As we jogged up the steep hill, panting heavily a series of gunshots brought us to a halt.

"Dad, that's the camp." I cried as a series of shrieks and more gunshots met our ears.

Suddenly, we all seemed to get a fresh bought of energy as we burst into a run the rest of the way. I tried not to think of the danger Carl and Mom could be in at the moment as the gunshots grew louder the closer we got.

Finally we broke through the bush and saw the camp infested with zombies. I pushed my fear to the back of my head and pumped my rifle before taking aim at the nearest geek and shooting. I could see Carl and Mom cowering behind Shane who was shooting off his own rounds at the zombies surrounding them.

Trying not to think of who could be lying on the ground or what body I could be stepping over I rushed deeper into camp as I spotted a walker limping towards Carl from the back, I took aim and shot.

A scream echoed out of my mouth as I felt a cold hand grab my shoulder, spinning around quickly I came face to face with dead eyes and a snapping mouth. I was struggling to get my gun under the walkers chin when all of a sudden it became stiff and fell to the ground. An arrow protruding from it's skull.

Taking a deep breath, I turned to see Daryl stood with his crossbow still raised in my direction. He nodded to me once before springing back into action and driving an arrow through another rotting skull.

The gunfire eventually stopped and the silence brought an eerie ringing along with it. Carl rushed forward when he saw Dad and I stood in the middle of the camp.

Dad picked him up before throwing an arm around me, tears flowing freely as we took in what had just happened. Mom had rushed forward to join us as well.

Once more, we were left crying into each other's shoulders.


	6. Chapter 6

_Okay, so I was actually having a really shitty day today and I came online and saw some of your reviews and they made me smile a lot so thank you so much for that!_

 _For this chapter I wanted to start a basis between Nikki and Carol as I think anyone that Daryl could be with has to be pre-approved by Carol or it just wouldn't work.._

 _As always, let me know what you think!_

* * *

"Wonder how long it takes." Glenn sighed, we had just exited our tent. It was the morning after the walker invasion and everyone was helping clean up the bodies that surrounded the camp. Some were walkers, other were people we had come to know and love since the world went to shit.

Glenn was now referring to Amy, the girl who had been my first friend out here. The only other girl that had been around my age in camp. She was now lying beside the RV, pale and cold. Andrea hadn't left her side since it happened, she was grasping her little sister's hand, staring at her face as if trying to memorize every detail.

"I don't know," I mumbled back, watching the scene before me. "I just hope Andrea is ready when she turns."

The sound of Daryl driving an axe through a skull made me wince. I took a moment to shake myself up before following Glenn and helping to clear more bodies from the camp.

A large fire had been made in the middle of camp, the pile of bodies on top of it was growing steadily. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of burning flesh as we passed by.

"The dead girl's a time bomb." I heard Daryl saying, gesturing over to where Andrea was crouched over Amy.

"And what do you suggest?" Dad sighed, rubbing his forehead with the back of his hand. His white shirt was covered in splotches of dried blood and sweat was dripping from his forehead from the heat of the sun.

"Take the shot," Daryl said almost disbelievingly. "Clean, in the brain, from here. Hell, I can get a turkey between the eyes from this distance."

"No," Mom spoke up. "God sake, let her be."

Daryl made a noise that sounded like an angry cat before stalking away, getting back to disposing of the bodies.

I watched as Glenn and T-Dog carried another motionless walker to the fire, Glenn had paused to watch Daryl and Morales heave a body between them. I recognized the man, he had been part of our camp, his family joining us at the beginning.

"Hey hey, what are you doing?" Glenn asked as they dragged the body closer to the flames. "This is for geeks, our people go over there!"

"What's the difference?" Daryl asked, letting the body lay back on the ground as he straightened up. "They're all infected."

"Our people go over there." Glenn repeated firmly. "We don't burn them, we bury them. Understand?"

I smiled sadly at my friend, he didn't even know half of these people very well but he was refusing to associate them with the walkers.

Daryl and Morales watched him closely before they both nodded and began dragging the body of the man in the direction Glenn had pointed to.

"Y'all left my brother for dead," Daryl growled to the camp before he pointed to the bodies. "You had this coming!"

"Do you think he's ever gonna forgive us for that?" Glenn asked, lifting his cap from his head as he watched Daryl stalk off.

"Doesn't look too likely." I shrugged, wrinkling my nose up slightly. I couldn't help glance towards Shane when I thought of how Daryl must feel. Shane had come to our house and told us that Dad was dead, that he couldn't save him. Pretty soon after that he had tried to take his place in our family. I couldn't help but wonder if Shane knew my dad was alive the entire time.

Before I could think anymore into the topic Jacqui's shout made me spin on my heel, my hand going straight to my sickle, fearing more walkers.

"A walker bit Jim." She cried, I watched as Jim slowly backed away from her. He was surrounded by the camp as we automatically made a circle.

"Show it to us." Daryl ordered, stalking around the circle. I felt myself being pushed back by Shane as Jim picked up a shovel. He glared at us all as he tried to keep his eyes on all of us, the shovel held in front of him defensively.

T-Dog quickly ran up behind him and pinned his arms to his sides, making him drop the shovel.

"I'm okay, I'm okay." Jim whimpered as Daryl rushed over and pulled up his top. A large bite mark was engraved into Jims torso, fresh blood oozing from the punctures the walkers teeth had made.

After Jim calmed down we told him to rest before Shane called a small group meeting on the edge of camp to figure out what to do.

"I say we put a pickaxe in his head." Daryl spoke up immediately. I blanched at the idea.

"And who's gonna be the one to do that?" I asked, staring him down. "He's one of our own we're not putting him down like some stray dog."

"What so we let him wander around camp till he turns?" He questioned, meeting my gaze. "Throw in the dead girl too and be done with it."

"Is that what you'd want?" Shane spoke, frustration evident in his voice. "If it were you?"

"Yeah and I'd thank you while you did it." Daryl shrugged.

"I hate to say this," Dale sighed. "I never thought I would, but maybe Daryl's right."

I gaped at the man before finding my voice. Dale was always so wise, so full of advice I couldn't quite believe what he was agreeing to.

"Maybe someone should think to ask Jim what he wants to happen." I suggested, folding my arms tightly.

'He's a sick man," Dad said, glaring between Dale and Daryl. "We fall down that route, where do we draw the line?"

"The line's pretty clear," Daryl argues back. "Zero tolerance for walkers, or the to be."

"What if we can get him help?" Dad asked the group. "I heard the CDC was working on a cure."

"I heard that too," Shane sighed. "I heard a lot of things before the world went to hell."

"What if the CDC's still up and running?" Dad shrugged.

"Well that is a stretch right there."

"Why? If there's any government left, any structure at all then they protect the CDC at all costs. I think it's our best shot." Everyone's heads moved between Shane and my dad as they argued over this point. "Food, shelter, warmth."

"I know you want those things, I do too, but if they exist, then they're at the army base. Fort Benning." Shane reasoned.

"That's a hundred miles in the opposite direction." Mom shrugged.

"But if that place is operational then it'll be heavily armed, we'll be safe there."

"The military were on the front lines of this thing, they got overrun, we all seen it." Dad continued to argue back. "The CDC is our only choice and Jims only chance."

"You go look for some aspirin, do what you need to do," Daryl said, slowly walking backwards, I saw Jim eyeing the pickaxe in Daryls hands as he got closer to Jims resting spot. "At least one of us has some balls to take care of this damn problem."

Dad and Shane sprang into action as Daryl swung the pickaxe over his head, running towards Jim. Shane quickly jumped in front of him while once again Dads python was pointing to Daryls head.

"We don't kill the living." Dad spat, fiercely.

"That's funny coming from a man who just put a gun to my head." Daryl growled.

"We may disagree on some things but this is not one of them," Shane spoke, before gesturing to the pickaxe. "You put that down now."

Daryl threw the pickaxe to the ground before stalking off, huffing to himself as he went.

I watched my Dad and Shane pick Jim up and drag him off before resuming the job of cleaning up the bodies. Walking to where Glenns stolen car was I looked down at the two bodies lying in front of it.

One belonged to Ed and another was a walker, half of the flesh on its face already rotted away. Hearing footsteps I glanced to my side to see Daryl walking over, he stopped when he was level with me, staring down at the two men.

"It's funny isn't it, whoever that walker was before could have been a better man than Ed but yet he's the one being burnt while Ed gets a burial." It was no secret around camp that Ed had frequently physically abused Carol and Sophia. His face was half unrecognizable due to Shane beating the shit out of him for this very reason.

"Doesn't matter what Ed did to his family," Daryl grumbled. "They're not gonna let him rot away like garbage."

I watched as he readied himself to raise the pickaxe but he stopped when Carol had reached us, her face was pained.

"I'll do it," She squeaked. "He was my husband."

Daryl took several steps back and I followed his lead as Carol lifted the pickaxe over her head. It seemed a lot heavier in her hands than it had in Daryls.

I winced as the axe came down on the side of Eds head, crashing through his skull instantly. Tears rolled down Carols face as she raised the axe again, bringing it down on her husbands head.

Glancing quickly at Daryl I saw he was even squirming slightly as Carol continued to destroy Eds skull with the tool.

Finally she stopped, handing the pickaxe back to Daryl and walking away, her shoulders shaking as she went.

I threw Daryl one last glance before walking forward and grabbing the legs of the walker, beginning to drag it to the fire. Ed would be far too heavy to manage even with Daryls help so I left him for T-Dog to deal with.

Once Glenn saw me dragging the corpse he ran to help, taking one of its legs from me and helping me heave it along the ground. When we reached the fire he moved to the head, grabbing the walker under the armpits, I grabbed its feet and together we flung it onto the flames. The fire began crackling instantly as the fire licked its new victim.

Glenn placed his hand on my shoulder, making me stop what I was doing and look to him. He wasn't looking at me however. I followed his gaze to the RV, if I looked close enough it almost looked like Amy was moving, her hands flexing slightly and her chest rising and falling.

I watched in horror as one hand slowly lifted to touch Andreas hair, Dad and Shane were now beginning to walk towards the sisters, hands finding their guns as they went.

Andrea was talking to Amy but I was too far away to hear what she was saying, Amy's head lifted from the ground, being drawn towards the sound of Andreas voice and before Dad or Shane could do anything Andrea had held the gun to her little sisters head and pulled the trigger.

Amy falling to the ground, limp once more.

The gunshot seemed to echo as we stood watching Andrea weeping silently over her sisters cold body. Dale slowly advanced forward, putting his hands on Andreas shoulders.

The bodies of the people we had shared the camp with were loaded onto the back of a pickup truck by Daryl, T-Dog and Glenn. Once every corpse was wrapped and loaded Daryl hopped into the truck and drove to the grave site Jim had been digging the day before.

The rest of us followed the truck up the dirt track to where Shane and Dad were stood over the graves looking tense.

Daryl was already out of the truck and arguing by the time the rest of us drew level with them.

"The china man gets all emotional, says it's not the right thing to do and we just follow him along?" He was saying.

"Shut up, Dixon." I groaned, impatiently, rolling my eyes as I grabbed a shovel.

"These people need to know who the hell's in charge here." Daryl continued on, ignoring me. "What the rules are."

"There are no rules." Dad snapped, ceasing his digging to turn and glare at Daryl.

"Well that's a problem," Mom spoke up, looking to Dad with slight desperation. "We haven't had one minute to hold on to anything of our old selves. We need time to mourn and we need to bury our dead. It's what people do."

I walked over to the grave that Shane was working on, starting to dig the other side.

"You alright, Nik?" Shane asked, watching me as I hacked at the earth with the shovel.

"Fine." I mumbled, not looking at him.

"Famous last words by every woman." He tried to joke, when I didn't crack a smile he continued on digging, not attempting to make any more conversation.

Since getting back to camp it had re-entered my head about who was gonna tell Dad about Mom and Shane being together when he was gone.

By the looks of things Mom was hoping to carry on as normal with Dad and just pretend that Shane had never happened. Unfortunately for her I'd seen the looks Shane gives them whenever they're sat beside each other at breakfast or when Dad is talking to Carl about shooting. Shane wasn't gonna let it go just like that.

After the graves were all dug the men began picking the bodies up from the truck, momentarily unwrapping the head to see who it was before the burial took place.

When Amy's turn came Andrea started forward.

"I'm burying her by myself." She stated, quickly taking Amy's body from Dales arms. Andrea struggled to get the dead weight of Amy to the assigned grave, dropping into it roughly as sobs racked through her chest.

It was difficult to watch as she said a final goodbye to her baby sister. My hand automatically reached out for Carl as the scene played out. He stood in front of me as I rested my arms on his shoulders, his head just coming to my chest.

"Burying other people is bad enough," Dad whispered as we tracked back to the camp behind everyone else. "But the thought of one of us."

"Are we safe now?" Carl asked, his voice sounding so childlike. "Now that we're together."

Mom pulled me closer to her, her hand resting on my back as Dad crouched down in front of Carl, focusing on the young boys hopeful gaze.

"I won't leave again," Dad stressed, looking to each of us in turn. "I promise you that, not for anything."

At the sight of Carls tears I felt a single drop running down my cheek, it felt cold against the heat of my skin before I quickly swiped it away.

I took Carl by the hand and led him back to camp, leaving our parents behind.

"I know you wouldn't break your promise before," Carl said, looking up at me. "When you said you'd come back."

"If I make a promise I keep it." I smiled, ruffling his hair.

When we got back to camp he ran towards Sophia who was sat in the middle of camp looking at the pictures on a book Glenn had no doubt scavenged on one of his runs.

"Kids are great," Carols voice came from over my shoulder, I turned to see her walking up to me. Watching Carl and Sophia. "All the horror that's going on around us and they'll still believe in fairytales and superheroes."

"They're tougher than we give them credit for." I nodded. "Carol, I'm really sorry about Ed, but you know you can come talk to any one of us, right?"

"Thanks Nikki," Carol smiled shyly. "Sometimes the whole apocalypse makes me wonder, I didn't have any friends before all this, and then the world ended and I met all of you people and you're all so nice."

I smiled at that, she had tears shinning in her eyes, all I could do was pull her into a hug, she patted my shoulder clumsily as I released her from the embrace.

Looking over towards the RV my jaw clenched as I saw Mom and Shane having a whispered argument over something. I didn't have to think too hard to guess what it was about.

Narrowing my eyes I watched as Dad stepped out the RV looking between the two of them. My heart began to beat a little faster as I watched his facial expression carefully. Could this be the moment he finds out.

I sighed deeply as I watched Dad and Shane walk with Dale into the woods, obviously not. My gaze wasn't lowered, however, when Mom looked in my direction, noticing that I was staring.

She made her way over to me as I picked up the basket of wet clothes Carol had been washing that morning, walking towards the clothes line with it.

"You okay, Nikki?" Mom asked me, her voice shaking slightly as I began hanging a shirt on the line. I stopped for a moment to look up at her, her eyes were wide but she was trying to stay calm.

"I'm just fine, thanks for asking." I said sarcastically, pegging the clothes a little too harshly.

"Look, me and Shane were just talking-"

"Oh I know what you and Shane were just talking about," I laughed humorlessly. "Woulda thought you'd tell Dad by now instead of making a fool out of him in front of everyone."

"I don't know what you're talking about but Nicole Karen Grimes you better watch your tone." She snapped, I smiled sarcastically again at this, balling a pair of trousers up and throwing them back into the basket.

"Do not insult my intelligence and do not full name me," I scoffed, doing my best to keep my voice low even though my blood was rising to boiling point. "Do you think you and Shane are gonna get away with what was going on? Do you think Shane is gonna let it go? Even if he did Dad still deserves to know what happened between his wife and his childhood best friend when he wasn't around."

"I thought he was dead," Mom whisper-shouted, her hands shaking.

"Well, you sure as hell didn't let that thought go cold before you jumped on Shane." I growled coldly before storming off.

It wasn't too long before Dad and Shane arrived back from the woods, walking to our small gathering around the fire.

"Look, I've been thinking of Ricks plan," Shane announced as they joined the circle. "Now, there are no guarantees, either way I'll be the first one to admit that. I've known this man a long time," Shane continued on, my eyes flickered over to Mom who was sat the other side of the circle, her gaze meeting mine before dropping to the ground. "I trust his instincts, I say the most important thing here is that we need to stay together. So, those of you that agree, we leave first thing in the morning."

That night it didn't take long for Glenns snores to fill the tent, I, on the other hand, lay awake late in to the night, staring at the ceiling of the tent.

What were we gonna face at the CDC? It was hard to imagine, after all we've seen that there was some safe haven that was untouched by the walking dead.


	7. Chapter 7

"Alright everybody, listen up." Shane called to the camp.

We had packed up the tents and what little belongings we had left, stuffing everything into a van or jeep. The time had come for us to go to the CDC.

I couldn't help but feel anxious, the quarry had become our little settling place, although since the walker raid on us the other night it didn't feel so safe around here anymore.

When Carl or Sophia ran off to play I could see Mom, Dad and Carol craning their necks to see where the kids had gone. Some days they didn't get to leave the surrounding of the fire at all and I didn't want my little brother growing up like that.

Kids needed to be outside running around and playing, not worrying about some monster creeping out of the bush and eating them alive.

"Those of you with CBs we're gonna be on channel forty," Shane was saying, Dad stood by his side. "Let's keep the chatter down okay? Now, if you got a problem, don't have a CB, can't get a signal, anything at all, you're gonna hit your horn one time, that'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

I looked around the group, everyone else seemed to be filled with worry to what might lie ahead, how smoothly would our trip to the CDC even go?

"We're not going," Morales spoke up, hesitantly. My forehead creased into a frown as I watched him and his family. Morales was one of our best fighters whenever there was trouble. That and he had young kids, why would they want to split up from the group?

"We have family in Birmingham," His wife explained as the camp filled with silence. "We wanna be with our people."

"You're out there on your own you won't have anyone to watch your back." Shane clarified, studying the family carefully.

"We'll take the chance," Morales shrugged. "I'll do what's best for my family."

"You sure?" Dad asked as Shane looked to the ground, sighing.

"We've talked about it. We're sure."

I watched as Dad sunk onto his hunkers, opening the bag that contained the guns. He began picking some of the firearms and ammo out before walking to Morales.

"The box is half full." Shane explained as he handed over the ammo, Morales taking the gun from my dad.

An impatient noise made me glance over to where Daryl Dixon stood, he was previously chewing on his nails, looking quite bored but seeing Dad and Shane hand over the ammo set him off pacing again.

I moved forward to hug Morales and his family, Mom following my lead. They had been with us from the start and had helped keep us alive. I found myself praying again to whoever was up there to help them keep safe.

"What makes you think our odds are any better?" Shane asked as Morales and his family walked towards their car.

"Jeez Shane, you're such a ray of sunshine." I rolled my eyes playfully as I glanced towards him.

"Just stating the obvious, kid." He said, clapping me on the back as he called for everyone to move to their respective cars.

"Don't listen to him, I trust you." I reassured my Dad as I linked my arm around his, walking to our car where Mom and Carl were already waiting. I couldn't help but notice that my words seemed to trouble Dad even more.

I called shotgun, racing to the passenger door of the car before Mom could reach for the handle. She smiled at me gently, rolling her eyes as she moved to the back.

The act was something that regularly happened before when we'd go away on family trips together. Once I got old enough to ride in the front I'd do anything to not have to sit in the back with Carl.

* * *

After what felt like an hour of following Dale in the caravan we suddenly began to slow down.

"What's happening?" I muttered to Dad, having previously been in a daze.

"I dunno." He answered simply before bringing the car to a stop and walking towards the caravan. I watched as he approached the vehicle containing Dale, Glenn, Jacqui and a very sick Jim.

After a while curiosity got the better of me and I made to get out of the car.

"I'd prefer if you stayed here." Mom asked gently from the back.

"I'll be right beside Dad, I'll be fine." I told her before getting out of the car.

"She never listens." I heard Carl whispering to Sophia before I slammed the door closed.

As I walked towards the caravan I saw steam coming from the front, Dale and Dad were studying it, pitying looks on their faces.

"I told you we'd never get far on that hose." Dale said matter-of-factly. "All it's been so far is more duct tape than hose."

"I see something up ahead," Shane had also exited his jeep to see what was going on. He was now standing in front of the line of cars holding Dales binoculars to his eyes. "Gas station if we're lucky."

The sound of running footsteps made us turn towards the caravan, Jacqui soon appeared from the door.

"It's Jim, he's bad, I don't think he can take anymore." She told us, panic in her voice as she searched each face for some reassurance.

* * *

After Shane and Dale had decided to head to the gas station and Dad went in to check on Jim I went to go lean on the hood of the truck behind the caravan which happened to be T-Dog and Andreas.

"How long more do we have to wait around for?" Andrea asked, glancing from car to car.

"Jacqui said Jim's not doing too well so Dads gone to check on him." I sighed, folding my arms.

"Great." She muttered impatiently.

"Sorry is Jim's dying getting in the way of an appointment you had?" I asked sarcastically, my eyes narrowing at her.

"Well I don't really feel like sitting around here like walker bait." Andrea fired back.

"Jim is dying, Andrea." I stressed, stepping towards her. "He's in a lot of pain right now, he might even be dead as we speak."

"Girls, can we not do this now?" T-Dog sighed, stepping up to me and Andrea. I felt Andreas glare boring into my back as I walked towards the caravan. Before I could blow off any steam Dad had emerged from the vehicle. The look on his face made my anger vanish almost instantly, he looked to me and shook his head slowly, fresh beads of sweat forming on his head.

After the rest of the camp had come together Dad took the time to repeat what Jim had told him inside the caravan. How he wanted us to just let him die, that he was ready.

"It's what he says he wants." Dad shrugged, looking to the ground.

"And he's lucid?" Carol asked timidly.

"He seems to be, yes."

"Back at the camp when I said Daryl might be right and you shut me down," Dale spoke up, shaking his head slightly. "You misunderstood. I would never go along with callously killing a man, but Nikki did suggest that we ask Jim what he wants and I think now we have that answer."

"We just leave him here?" Shane asked quietly. "Take off? Man, I'm not sure that I could live with that."

I found myself blinking back tears at the thoughts of what we were discussing.

* * *

After coming to the agreement that Ed should be granted his wish we stood by and watched as Dad and Shane carried him to a nearby tree. Propping him up against the rough bark that contrasted horrifically with his now pale skin.

A light sheen of sweat covered his face and body as he closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. The journey from the caravan to this tree seemed to have taken the most out of him.

"Hey, another damn tree." He smirked, opening his eyes to peer up at the leaves.

"Jim, you know it doesn't need to be this," Shane explained, almost pleading with him.

"No, it's good. The breeze feels nice."

We took turns saying goodbye to Jim, I didn't know what to say to him only a quiet thank you. Thank you for the help around camp, thank you for the extra protection, it was the only thing that had come to my head before I kissed his burning cheek softly.

We slowly filed back to the cars, a dark cloud now hanging over all of us as our thoughts remained with Jim.

I turned to look back only to see Daryl, unmoved from his spot on the hill. He gave Jim one small nod before turning and walking back towards us.

I swiped at my eyes as Daryl walked by me, his forearm brushing off of mine gently as he passed. If it were anyone else I woulda just assumed it was an accident but coming from Daryl Dixon that was as good as a hug.

* * *

"We're here," Dad croaked after what felt like hours of silence. I looked up as each vehicle pulled up to the sidewalk before stopping. No one moved for a few minutes until Dad and Shanes doors both opened and the partners exited their respective cars.

I took a deep breath before following my Dads lead and getting out of the car. The CDC was up ahead of us, a circular built, modern style building. The building itself and everything surrounding it just looked gray. Even the leaves on the grass surrounding us seemed dull.

I smiled a quick thanks to Shane as he thrust a rifle into my hand. Everyone was now standing on the pavement, looking cautiously all around the building. Those who could shoot had firearms, Daryl had his crossbow. I made a mental note to thank my Dad for letting me try out the shooting range when I'd turned sixteen.

My nose wrinkled as I moved to stand beside Glenn who was wearing a similar expression. The sound of flies buzzing took over my ear drums.

The grounds around the CDC were littered with what looked to be dead bodies. Some covered, others left to rot out in the open.

As we slowly advanced on the building I couldn't help but look at the makeshift body bags as we passed. How many deaths had occurred here? How many bodies had reanimated and were now roaming freely?

I stopped walking as movement caught my eye, a body with a sheet draped over it was moving close by. Getting the butt of my rifle ready I nudged aside the corner of the tarp with the toe of my boot. Bile rose to my stomach as I saw nothing but a swarm of maggots underneath it.

I swallowed thickly, refusing to be the one that puked her guts up right now.

"Breath through your nose," A voice close to me growled in a whisper, causing me to jump. I turned to see Daryl standing feet away from me, his crossbow aimed at the same maggot-covered corpse I had been sickened by. "The smell will get better quicker."

Once we reached the shutters of the CDC I felt my heart sink as Dad and Shane failed to lift them. Darkness was falling on us quickly.

I turned my back to the building, deciding to keep watch for walkers instead.

"Walker." Glenn warned, I heard Carl and Sophias cries of terror as they looked on to the limping corpse coming towards us. The guns were only good right now as blunt force weapons, the noise would cause us to be swarmed so Glenn and I stood back as Daryl moved forward, an arrow protruding from the walkers skull soon after.

I grit my teeth as Daryl launched himself towards Dad, snarling at him for making the wrong call.

"Rick, this is a dead end." Shane muttered after telling Daryl to shut up. My eyes widened at the protruding walkers as the others argued over what we were going to do. Stress was building amid the camp and it was building fast.

"If we don't leave now, we're not gonna make it out of here." I called to whoever was listening, hopefully Dad or Shane. My heart thumped loudly in my chest as the sound of the others cocking their guns echoed around us.

"C'mon, let's get out here." Shane called, beginning to lead us back to the cars.

"The camera, it moved." Dad shouted, desperation clear in his voice.

"You imagined it." Dale shook his head as Dad moved back towards the shutters. I spun to where Shane was standing close by.

"Please get him to the cars." I begged as I continued circling around Mom and Carl, my gun raised.

Shane nodded and after that I could hardly hear anything over the thumping of my heart. I knew the kids were crying, I knew Shane was yelling at my Dad to move but I couldn't concentrate on anything but the walkers that were now creeping towards us, slinking out of the dark like the monsters from a nightmare.

I felt like I'd been blinded. The area around us was so gray and dark, shadows surrounding us when all of a sudden the bright light had appeared.

I stopped in my tracks. Everyone was at a standstill as we squinted towards the light that was now pouring out of the CDC.

Were we saved or was the old cliché right? Had I died and just seen the famous bright light?


	8. Chapter 8

_Thank you so much, once again, for all of your support on this story. I'm sorry for the late update but I work as a bartender so that does include late nights, meaning very limited time for writing._

 _I love that you all seem to be liking Nikki, I hope to continue with your expectations of her and that she'll be good enough for Mr. Dixon._

 _Once again, tell me what you think of the story so far as I love hearing from you guys!_

 _Happy reading!_

* * *

"Everyone with weapons surround those without." Although Shanes order came as a whisper it seemed to crash through the silence surrounding us.

I gravitated towards where Mom was stood with her arms around Carl, her mouth slightly open as she stared at the light that flooded us.

"We have to move now." Dads command was also a whisper. I watched as he stepped forwards, the rest of us following slowly as we filed into the building, weapons raised. "Close the doors and watch out for walkers."

I searched the huge interior of the building for any sign of a threat or approaching walkers. Being back in a pristine government building was clearly disorientating all of us. I looked around at my group and saw the same sense of bewilderment on each face as I'm sure was mirrored on my own.

The sound of a gun cocking snapped us all out of our trance as we spun towards the noise. A man with sandy blonde hair was walking towards us, his gun raised.

"Is anyone infected?" He asked, squinting at us.

"One of our group was," Came Dads reply. "He didn't make it."

"Why are you here, what do you want?" The man asked in all one breath.

"A chance."

"That's asking an awful lot these days." The man shrugged. I noticed Dad inching in front of Mom, Carl and I. I stepped out from his shadow so that I could get a clear shot of the guy with my gun.

"You all submit to a blood test, that's the price of admission." I felt a slight sense of relief at these words, does this mean he was going to let us stay?

"We can do that." Dad nodded, almost sounding desperate.

"You got stuff to bring in, you do it now." The man lowered his weapon as he explained. Dad also lowered his as he rushed to follow the orders. I however kept my gun raised, we didn't know if we were in the clear yet.

I saw the mans gaze flicker in my direction before stopping on the gun still pointed at his head.

"Nikki, lower it." Dad ordered, I glanced at him quickly but I saw the look of pleading in his eyes. Battling with my instincts I decided it was better trust Dad than get thrown out to the walkers for the night. I lowered my gun but kept a glare on the man.

After our bags were collected from the vehicles and the man had introduced himself as Dr. Jenner, we all made our way into a small elevator.

I found myself being squeezed in between Glenn and T-Dog, no one was speaking.

"Doctors always go around packing heat like that?" Daryl asked from the other side of the elevator. I didn't like how Jenner was stood with his back to the rest of us.

"There were plenty left lying around so I familiarized myself with them." He shrugged, turning his head slightly to address Daryl.

"Well, you look harmless enough." He shrugged after looking to each of our faces. "Except you, I'll have to keep my eye on you." Carl smirked along at the Doctors words.

"Are we underground?" Carols timid voice asked as we walked through a narrow hallway.

"You claustrophobic?" Jenner asked.

"A little."

"Try not to think about it."

"It's better than being above ground and walker food." I smiled reassuringly to Carol as we walked, a smirk tugged at the corner of her lips as she looked around the walls.

"Vi, bring up the lights in the big room." Jenner ordered as we entered what appeared to be a circular room. When the lights turned on I couldn't help my jaw from dropping, it looked like something you'd see in a NASA documentary. Computers at semi-circle desks all facing one bigger screen. Railing ran around the platform that held the desks and we were currently standing on a small bridge that sloped downwards to the office-like space.

"Where is everybody?" Dad asked, the quickest to snap out of awe.

"I'm it," Jenner said, turning to face us. "It's just me here."

"What about the person you were speaking with?" Mom asked form the back of the group.

"Vi, say hello to our guests." Jenner commanded once again. "Tell them welcome." I looked sideways to Shane who met my gaze with the same expression. Should we be wary or not?

"Hello guests, welcome." The voice spoke, making us all frown deeply.

"No way, I thought they only had stuff like this in the movies." I muttered towards Glenn. My voice carried in the large open room, causing Jenner to smile sadly.

"I'm all that's left."

Jenner turned to lead us through the main room, after walking another narrow corridor we turned into it, what looked like a classroom. Complete with white board. He announced that this is where he'd be taking blood samples from us.

I rolled up the sleeve on my left arm roughly, noticing, for the first time, the small cuts and bruises that scattered along my skin.

"What's the point?" I heard Andrea asked, she was now sitting opposite Jenner as a vile filled with the blood from her arm. "If any of us were infected we'd have a fever."

"Needles make you queasy, Andrea?" I joked as she rolled her eyes in my direction.

"I've already broken every rule in the book letting you in here." Jenner explained. "Let me just at least be thorough."

After I had my blood taken I felt myself waver on the spot after standing up. Needles didn't bother me but taking a blood sample on an empty stomach would weaken anyone.

Jenner looked to us all thoughtfully as he realized it had been a number of days since any of us had eaten.

Without saying another word he led us all to a room with a large table in the middle. After we had gotten over the shock of all of the food and wine that Jenner had laid out in front of us we began digging in straight away.

"Y'know in Italy," Dale was explaining over laughter. "Children have a little bit of wine with dinner."

"And when Carl is in Italy he can have some then." Mom laughed along with Dale.

"What's it gonna hurt? C'mon?" Dad laughed, eventually making Mom roll her eyes and pour a small glass for Carl.

Everyone waited in silence as Carl took a sip of the red wine. He quickly grimaced making us all laugh as he pushed the wine away.

"That's my boy." Mom ruffled his hair as Carl tried to get the taste out of his mouth. "And what do you think you're doing?"

I looked up to see Mom looking to me pointedly as I accepted a glass of wine from Dale.

"You are joking, right?" I laughed.

"You're not twenty-one last time I checked, and you're not in Italy either."

I looked to Dad, raising my eyebrows as everyone around the table watched in amusement.

"Lori, if you were gonna let Carl try some?" Dad reasoned, placing his hand on the back of my chair. Mom shrugged before rolling her eyes. I grinned widely before taking a large gulp of the wine, sighing in content as I put the glass down as I heard everyone breaking out in laughter again.

"Well that's most definitely not someones first time." Shane grinned from beside me.

"That's my girl." Dad laughed as he patted my head.

"Glenn," Daryl called from the other side of the table. "Drink it little man, I wanna see how red your face can get."

A small tinkling of a knife against glass made us all sober up and quieten down as Dad stood from his seat.

"It seems to me that we haven't thanked our host properly."

"He is more than just our host." T-Dog chimed in, raising his glass. We all nodded in agreement, clinking our glasses together.

"So when are you gonna tell us what the hell happened here, Doc?" Shane spoke up, intensity seeping its way back into the group as we all turned our attention to Jenner. "All the other doctors, who were supposed to be figuring out what happened. Where are they?"

"We're celebrating, Shane," Dad spoke up. "No need to do this now."

"Woah wait a second, this is why we're here right? This was your move, supposed to find all the answers and instead we found him." Shane smirked humorlessly as he pointed to the doctor.

"You sure know how kill a mood, Shane." I sighed, holding his eye contact from across the table.

"I want to know why there's only one doctor left in the whole CDC, Nikki," Shane jeered, tilting his head to the side. "It's just one question."

"Well when everything started getting really bad," Jenner began to explain. "A lot of people just left. Went off to be with their families. And when things got worse, when the military got overrun, the rest bolted."

"Every last one?" Shane smirked disbelievingly.

"No, many couldn't face walking out the door," Jenner pressed on. "They opted out. There was a rash of suicides."

"Why didn't you leave?" Andrea asked.

"I just kept working, hoping to do some good."

"Dude you are such a buzzkill, man." Glenn groaned to Shane as I nodded my head in agreement.

After Shane pretty much killed the mood at dinner we all decided it was time to go to sleep. When this was suggested to Jenner he heaved himself out of his seat to direct us down another narrow hallway.

"Most of the facilities powered down," He explained as we followed him past a series of doors. "Including housing so you'll have to make do here. Couches are comfortable, but there are cots in storage if you like. If you shower, go easy on the hot water."

I stopped in my tracks, feeling T-Dog bump into me from behind but I didn't care, Jenners words had caused a wide grin to spread across my face. I turned to look at Glenn who was mirroring my expression.

"Hot water?" He grinned in my direction.

"That's what the man said." T-Dog smiled back, clapping his hands onto my shoulders.

After I had chosen a room I stepped carefully into the bathroom, the shower almost seemed like a mirage. There's no way a hot shower still existed.

I turned the dial on the shower towards the red mark and pressed the power button. Feeling like I was in a trance I carefully places my hand underneath the falling jets. The smile returned to my face as I realized this was, in fact, real.

Quickly I shed my clothing and stepped into the shower, laughing to myself as I watched the water around my feet turn a light shade of brown from the grime leaving my body.

After spending much too long washing my hair I shut the shower off and stepped out of the cubicle. Pulling my bathrobe on as I did so.

A knock came on my door just as I closed the bathroom door, I opened it to see Glenn standing there, his face alight with a smile as he held up a bottle of wine.

"Have you been robbing the store room, Korea?" I grinned, standing aside to let him in.

After fifteen minutes I was lying across the couch while Glenn sat on the floor by my head, the two of us in hysterics over nothing. My cheeks were sore from laughing but it felt so good.

"I can't believe you're little brother walked in on your first kiss." He laughed harder, as I took a swig from the bottle we were sharing.

"The little asshole ran and told Mom and Dad, I was so angry." I chuckled along with him at the memory. "I got grounded for a week and Dad threatened to have the boy arrested if he saw us together again."

"That must have been the worst thing about having a Sheriff for a Dad." Glenn chuckled, shaking his head.

"It was one flaw in something that was actually pretty cool to be fair." I smiled, closing my eyes as I felt them droop. "He taught me how to shoot, he taught me how to fight back, he taught me some really weird facts about the law in this state that some people don't know."

"He seems like a cool guy." Glenn nodded.

When I woke up the next morning I felt like I'd tried to take on a fourteen wheeler, head on. Groaning as I stood up I noticed Glenn wasn't here anymore.

After I had pulled on my clothes carefully I made my way down to the canteen area we'd had dinner in the night before.

"How's the head?" Dad voice came from behind me, I turned to see him making his way to the canteen too.

"Feeling like it's hanging on by a thread." I groaned as he put his arm around me, giving me a one armed squeeze as he chuckled to himself.

We walked into the canteen just like that, Dads arm around my shoulders and my head leaning towards his shoulder.

"Are you hungover?" Carl asked us both, smirking. "Mom said you'd be."

I smiled at my brother as Mom looked up at us sheepishly.

"Mom is right." Dad sighed as we sat down. I quickly pulled a plate of bacon towards me, my mouth watering at the smell of the meat.

"Mom has that annoying habit." Mom smirked in our direction as she chewed on her own strip of bacon.

"How're you holding up, Korea?" I asked Glenn who was sat on my other side, his head in his hands as he focused on the table.

"Ever have the worlds worst hangover and a crick in your neck?" He sighed, blinking slowly.

"Do not tell me you slept on the floor by my couch for the entire night?" My laugh increased as he looked to me witheringly.

"Don't ever ever ever let me drink again." Glenn muttered towards the table.

"The hell happened to you?" T-Dog asked Shane who had just walked in. My eyes narrowed at the long, red scratches running along Shanes neck and jaw bone.

"Must have done it in my sleep." He shrugged, sitting down at the table.

"Never seen you do that before." Dad spoke up as he studied the scratches.

I looked over to Mom who was focusing hard on the plate of bacon in front of her. My jaw clenched as I realized there was more to the story than Shane was letting on.

I came to the conclusion that if Mom hadn't told Dad about her and Shane by the end of the day then I would.


	9. Chapter 9

_Thank you so much, once again for all of your kind words. It really encourages me to continue on with this story and puts a smile on my face every time I read a review or see how many follows and favorites my little story has gotten!_

 _You're all so nice and I love that you seem to like Nikki so far, let me know if you think she is, in fact a suitable pairing for Daryl or if not, who would you pair her with?_

* * *

I couldn't help but watch in awe as Jenner showed us the playback of TS-19. We watched with our mouths open as the x-ray video showed us the small lights flitting through the brain that made this person who they were.

Each light slowly seemed to dim as the life left the person in question. We waited with bated breath until suddenly a spark went off in the base of the brain, the x-ray skeleton began moving as more lights joined the first.

The movement of the persons snapping jaw was all too familiar to us now, we all knew by this movement alone that it was the indication that the person had turned into a walker.

There were lights floating up and down the persons brain, flowing down the spinal cord and through the nervous system, but there wasn't half as many lights as before.

"You have no idea what it is, do you?" Andrea asked, folding her arms as Jenner commanded for the main screen and work stations to be shut off.

"It could be microbial, viral, parasitic, fungal." Jenner listed off.

"Or the wrath of God?" Jacqui spoke up, her voice quivering.

"There's that." The doctor sighed, nodding slightly.

"I can't believe that the whole entire world is going through this nightmare as well." I shook my head from my spot beside Daryl. "Someone, somewhere has to know something there has to be other people surviving outside of this hell."

"There may be some people like me." Jenner shrugged once more making me role my eyes and throw my hands up in frustration.

"You don't know?" Dad jumped in, desperation clear in his voice. "How can you not know?"

"Everything went down, communications, directives, all of it. I've been in the dark for almost a month."

"So there's nothing left anywhere?" Andrea asked incredulously.

The doctors lack of answer was all we needed to confirm our suspicions. I turned toward the desk behind me, placing my hands on it and leaning slightly on them. There's no way that we're all that's left. We can't be the only ones left to survive in this hell.

I watched my hands shaking for a few minutes on the table top before I shook my head slightly, pulling myself together and standing up straight. If this was really and truly a fight for survival there was no way we could break down.

"Man I'm gonna get shit faced drunk, again." Daryl muttered from beside me, rubbing his forehead.

I tried to distract myself in some way as everyone slowly came to terms with the information we were just given.

Looking around the room, my eyes fell on what looked like a massive digital clock. My heart reacted before my brain did, picking up speed quickly. It wasn't a digital clock on the wall, it was a timer that was counting down. The giant red numbers seeming sinister.

So far everything about this place seemed to be just like the movies so I dreaded the answer to my next question.

"What's that timer counting down to?"

I noticed the realization on my Dads face first as he turned to Jenner quickly.

"The basement generators, they run out of fuel." Jenner tried to say nonchalantly but he failed as he looked uncomfortable under everyones gaze.

"And then?" Dad asked only to be completely ignored by Jenner. "Vi, what happens when the power runs out?"

"When the power runs out, facility wide decontamination will occur." The automated voice answered, my eyes were wide and my heart was beating faster than ever.

Dad looked to Shane, Glenn and T-Dog before filing out of the main room, no doubt leading them to the basement to have a look at the generators.

"You better hope this isn't anything bad." I warned Jenner, he just stared back at my glare, his face empty of emotion.

"What do you think it means?" Daryl muttered quietly as he turned his back to the others. I glanced over at Carl who was clinging to Mom, both of them looking scared.

"What happens when something is decontaminated?" I asked Daryl before answering my own question. "It's destroyed, I don't know what parts of this building comes under those terms but I don't like the sound of it."

I watched as Daryls jaw clenched, the nerve in his neck jumping as he started pacing, shooting daggers over to Jenner every now and then.

After Mom suggested that we all stay in our rooms as we waited for the others to return from looking at the basement I found myself sitting on the couch I had slept on the night before, head in hands.

A small knock on the door snapped me out of my reverie. I pulled the door open to see Daryl stood with his back against the far wall, chewing on his fingernails.

"That's a terrible habit." I smiled slightly before turning and sitting back down on the couch.

"If your Dad can't fix this then we just leave, the cars are still outside." I heard him growl from the doorway. Daryl had moved as far as that and decided to not come any farther into the room, I didn't push him on it either. He looked oddly uncomfortable anyway.

"One hour, that's what was left on that clock." I sighed, glancing up to him. "You think we're gonna be able to sort it all out in one hour?"

Daryl never answered me, I sighed deeply before noticing a certain dead silence in the room. Looking towards the vent I stood and made my way over to it, holding my hand up.

"The air conditioning has stopped." I muttered just loud enough for Daryl to hear. When the lights went out we both looked at each other in panic before making our way out of the room.

Everyone else was currently doing the same, looking to each other for an answer.

"Why is the air off?" Mom asked as Jenner walked down the hallway.

"And the lights in our room?" Carol chimed in.

"Energy use is being prioritized." Jenner answered calmly, walking through us without making eye contact.

"Air isn't a priority?" Dale asked. "And lights?"

"It's not up to me," Jenner explained. "Zone 5 is shutting itself down."

I turned to stay in stride with Mom and Carl as we followed Jenner down the hallway.

"What the hell does that mean?" Daryl called after him. Every light around us was going off one by one. "Hey man, I'm talking to you. What do you mean it's shutting itself down?"

"Rick?" Mom called over the banister at the sound of the others footsteps running to meet us. I quickly ran down the rest of the flight of stairs to make it over to my Dad.

"What's going on?" I asked him pleadingly, fearing that I already knew. Dad simply put a hand on my shoulder before starting over to Jenner. I turned to Shane, desperate for information but he too was glaring at the doctor.

We came to a stop behind Jenner, each one of us wordlessly pleading for an answer.

Daryl walked up and grabbed the bottle of alcohol the doctor was currently drinking from, staring him down as he walked forwards.

"It was the French." Jenner began to explain as he made his way to the platform with the desks and computers. "They were the last ones to hold out as far as I know. A lot of people were bolting out the doors and committing suicide in the hallways, they stayed in the labs until the end. They thought they were close to a solution."

"Everyone grab your stuff we're getting out of here, now!" Dad called to us. Just as we started bolting for the doors an ear splitting alarm started sounding from all areas.

I watched as Jenner walked over to a key pad, pressing his key to the scanner and pushing some buttons on it. My stomach flipped as shutters came down on the doors and windows surrounding us.

"He just locked us in!" Glenn shouted, his eyes wide.

I watched as Daryl raced over to where the doctor was sitting calmly in front of a computer, Dad called for Shane as Daryl was tackled to the side by him and T-Dog.

"Jenner, open that door now." Dad ordered, making his way over to him. I followed close behind, ignoring Moms pleas to stay with her and Carl.

"There's no point." Jenner shrugged. "Everything is locked down the emergency exits are sealed. I told you once that front door was closed it wouldn't open again, you heard me say that."

I rolled my eyes before walking towards Jenner, my first pulled back getting ready to snap forward. Before I could make contact, however, I felt Dads arms circling my waist and pulling me back.

"This absolute dick tricked us into our own deaths." I shouted, turning on my heel to face Dad.

"And how is hitting him gonna solve anything?" He asked, glaring back at me. "What happens in twenty-eight minutes?"

"In the event of a catastrophic power failure or a terrorist attack," Jenner recited almost robot-like. "HIT's are deployed to prevent anything from getting out. Vi, define."

"HIT's, high impulse thermobaric fuel air explosives consist of a two stage aerosol ignition."

I stopped listening as the automated voice continued to define the thing that was going to kill us.

None of us could look at the other but I felt Dads hand tugging on the hem of my shirt, pulling me towards him as I lifted my hands to my face. I felt him leading me towards where Carl and Mom stood, I threw my arms around my family, trying to memorize every scent and every feel of each of them.

The sound of a glass smashing made me look towards the shutter covering the main door. Daryl had thrown the liquor bottle at it.

"Open the damn door!" He shouted towards Jenner.

I watched in desperation as he and Shane continued to beat the shutter with whatever they could find, the sound of Carl and Sophia crying in the background.

"There are kids here." I muttered, shaking my head at Jenner.

"Those doors are designed to withstand a rocket launcher." He called to Shane and Daryl. I jumped to the side as Daryl ran at Jenner once more, an axe raised over his head as he aimed for the doctor. Before he could get too close Dad, Shane and T-Dog had grabbed him, forcing him to lower his weapon.

"You do want this." Jenner sighed, looking to Dad. "You said so yourself last night, you said it was only a matter of time before everyone you knew was dead."

I felt my body freeze up at this, my head turning to Dad in disbelief as he failed to deny the doctors comment.

"Did you really say that?" Shane asked angrily. "After all your big talk."

"I had to keep hope alive, didn't I?" Dad groaned desperately, looking between me and Mom. I shook my head, turning away and sighing deeply. My head hurt from trying to think of ways to get out of this situation.

I felt Glenn hugging me to his chest as I fought back tears, I turned at the sound of a gun cocking. Shane had pushed everyone aside and now had a gun held to Jenners head.

"Open the door or so help me I will blow your head off." His voice was dangerous.

"Shane he wants to die, you're gonna have to do it slower than that." I said matter-of-factly as I stood watching the scene, one of Glenns arms still hugging me to his chest.

"Shane if he dies we will never get out of here." Dad tried to reason. I felt Glenn pulling me to the ground as Shane took aim at the computers and began firing, one by one.

We stood up slowly as the shooting ceased, Dad had managed to wrestle the gun from Shane. He was now pleading with Jenner for what seemed like the last time for our only possible chance of getting out of here.

My heart dropped to my stomach as Jenner revealed that Test Subject 19 was in fact his wife.

"Give us a chance, that's all we want." Dad reasoned with him.

"Let us keep fighting for as long as we can." Mom also pleaded, grabbing my hand as she looked to the doctor.

I watched as Jenner sighed deeply before walking to the keypad and pressing his card to it, pushing more buttons I heard the door behind us open.

I tugged on my Moms hand, pulling her and Carl backwards, towards the exit.

"Dad come on!" I shouted, running up the bridge as quickly as I could.

"No no, I'm staying." I heard Jacqui telling T-Dog as he tried to pull her to safety.

I watched on in desperation as Jacqui walked back to the platform with the computers, Andrea also hadn't moved.

"Just go!" Dale called back to us as he attempted to reason with the women. I took a moment to nod towards Andrea, understanding what she was doing before following Mom and Carl out of the main room and through the narrow hallways.

"We have four minutes left." Glenn called from somewhere behind me as we sprinted through the halls.

I got the edge of my rifle, hitting the window as hard as I could with the edge of it as the others attempted to do the same at each pane.

I watched as Shane shot at the window panes, the bullets reflecting from each one.

"Rick, I have something that might help." Carol called rushing forwards.

"Carol, I don't think a nail file is gonna help." Shane sighed but Carol carried on as if she hadn't heard him.

"Your first day at camp when I washed your uniform I found this in your pocket." My eyes widened at the sight of the grenade lying in the middle of Carols palm.

We rushed over to the steps, lying as low as we could as Dad pulled the pin from the grenade and left it by the nearest window pane.

He ran towards us, the sudden blast throwing him forward. I looked up to see that the plan had succeeded and there was now a section of the window missing its glass.

We rushed out, one by one, making sure the kids were both in front of us as we ran from the CDC.

Walkers began limping towards us, the sound of the grenade exploding drawing them in this direction. All of us with guns and weapons began killing the nearest ones to us. We just needed enough room to make it to the vehicles okay.

Just as the vehicles were in sight I felt my foot bend in the wrong direction as I ran over a step, I cried out as I came down hard to the ground, feeling something in my leg tearing.

I rolled over as quickly as I could to see a Walker limping much too close to me. The animated corpse was on top of me before I knew it, I could hear the others shouting behind me.

My gun had flown out of my hand as I fell and all I could do was grope around on the ground for it as panic started to flood my body.

The Walkers teeth were snapping inches from my face, I let out a scream as it slumped forward, its head landing in the crook of my neck.

I hadn't realized I had closed my eyes until I opened them again, wondering when the pain of being bitten was gonna take over.

The walker was pulled off me and it was then that I saw the arrow protruding from its skull.

"I've got her." I heard Daryl shouting as he lifted me up and began dragging me towards the cars.

"Daryl, I can't weight bare on my ankle, I'm slowing you down too much."

"Shut up, Grimes." He growled at me, continuing to pull me along beside him.

I winced as he shoved me into a jeep beside Shane, the pain from my ankle spreading up my leg.

"Get down!" Shane shouting, pulling me until I was lying flat down on the seat, Daryl diving in over me as we threw our hands over our heads.

I felt the explosion before I heard it. The wave of power that came off of it rocked the jeep and made my hair blow from my face.

After the rolls of power from the explosion began to cease I lifted my head slowly, watching in amazement as the enormous government building turned to rubble before us.

I quickly spun around in my seat, looking to the car behind us I saw Mom, Dad and Carl staring back at me. The relief brought a smile to my face as I panted, my heart attempting to slow down.

"Think she tore ligaments or something." Daryl was saying to Shane, looking at my ankle.

"I don't care." I sighed, laughing slightly at the fact that we had made it out alive.


	10. Chapter 10

After Shane and Daryl had torn the bottom off the leg of my jeans we had set off away from the CDC. Daryl back in Merles jeep, scrambler on the back and Shane and I in his vehicle.

"You scared us, Nic." Shane sighed as we followed the caravan along the deserted roads.

"Scared myself." I smiled slightly to him as I rolled my foot, testing out the pain in my ankle. It niggled a little bit but it didn't seem to be too sore.

"I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to any of you. You, Carl, your Mom, Rick."

I froze slightly at Shane's words, resentment bubbling in my blood again.

"Did you really think Dad was dead?" My voice was quiet as I focused on the dash in front of me. I felt Shane's gaze on my face as he considered my words.

"There was no doubt in my head that he was gone, I swear it." Swallowing thickly I looked over to him to see his jaw clenched, his grip tight on the wheel. I reached my hand over to his and took it gently.

I had grown up with Shane around me, there was no way I could hate him but that didn't mean I had to like some of the choices he made. Shane had babysat Carl and I, he had been at our house every Christmas, never missed a birthday.

We came to a stop on the side of a secluded road. Trees were scattered on the edge of a forest, the perfect place to park the cars up as we refueled and sorted everything out.

"I'm okay." I laughed slightly as my family and Glenn rushed over to me when out vehicle came to a stop. Mom hugged me tight before dropped to exam my ankle. "It's not that sore, I don't think there's as much damage done as we thought."

"We'll bandage it up with some clothes to give it some support." Dad muttered, mostly to himself. After I had insisted they use the sleeves of my own shirt so as not to waste any clothes on anyone my ankle was soon bandaged up.

I put my now sleeveless check shirt back on over my white vest top and hobbled my way over to the car Mom Dad and Carl were sharing with Carol and Sophia.

After I had called shotgun and we all filed into the vehicle it was time to move on once more.

"I was just thinking about the trip we took to the Grand Canyon with the kids." Mum said, laughter in her voice.

"What a disaster." I smiled, remembering the family trip.

"I don't remember that." Carl spoke up from the back seat.

"No you wouldn't you were just a baby."

"You got sick all over the place." I laughed, Dad had been stressed out and Mom had been disappointed that we had to turn around.

"I never knew a baby could throw up so much." Dad chuckled.

"Can we go see it?" Carl asked, causing the smile to slip from my face. "I'd like to see the Grand Canyon."

"I would too." Sophie spoke up thoughtfully.

"We'd never go without you and your Mom." Dad reassured her, smiling slightly.

After a while I noticed the caravan in front beginning to slow down. My mouth opened slightly as I realized I was looking at what could only be described as a graveyard of vehicles.

We were on the highway which was littered with abandoned cars, the caravan was now weaving through them as best as it could, Daryl was ahead of us on his bike, doing a better job of making it through than we were.

I watched in horror as cars were overturned, doors left open, some even looked as though they were crushed in some way. It was haunting to look at.

We finally came to a stop after the caravan gave out, steam coming from the front grille.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we could find here." Daryl muttered as he searched through the contents of a nearby trunk.

After we had decided we'd try and siphon fuel from the cars we all began to spread out.

"Nikki, take your gun." I heard Dad calling, I turned and caught the rifle he had thrown to me. "I don't want you wondering around here unarmed, and stick close to your brother too."

After a few minutes of walking shouts of delight from Shane made me turn towards him. He had the side shutter of a truck open, gallons of water bottles were stocked in the side.

I smiled to myself before making my way over, opening another bottle and sticking my head under the flow of fresh water.

"Almost feels better than the shower at the CDC." I laughed along with Shane.

"Shane, Nikki, under the cars." Dads whisper shout made my heart begin to race as I turned to see the panic in his eyes.

"Shane, get Glenn." I whispered as he shoved me to the ground. Glenn was nearby looking for a hose for the caravan. I watched as Shane shoved Glenn to the pavement before I rolled under the water truck, hopefully out of sight.

Panic flooded me and I almost feared that the sound of my heart beating was loud enough for the walkers to hear.

Their feet shuffled past the truck I was hiding under, there was too many to count.

I tried my best to hold my breath as they filed past, groaning as they went. My heart was beating hard against my chest as I clutched to the rifle in my hands with all I had.

After what seemed like an hour but was probably only a few minutes it looked like they had moved on. No more feet passed my truck, I rolled over onto my stomach to see Shane and Glenn under a nearby van.

They both nodded to me as I let out a breath, no one was daring to move or speak.

Once I saw Shane and Glenn rolling out from underneath their vehicle I decided it had to be safe to move. As carefully as I could I crawled back out onto the open road. Standing up and brushing myself off I wiped the sweat off my forehead as I straightened up.

Suddenly, Carol's cries made us all turn in the direction we had previously come in. I saw Dad jump over the side railing and disappear down the drop beyond it.

My heart began to pick up speed again as I rushed over to where he had disappeared. As I neared the barrier arms circled around me, Shane was pulling me back from the edge, struggling as I fought against him.

"We can't let him go off alone!" I whisper shouted back to Shane, still aware that there could be more walkers around.

"He's gone after Sophia we wouldn't be able to follow him now." Mom spoke up, hugging me to her.

"Daryl can," I whipped around to find the archer stood behind the rest of us. "You can track Daryl we can follow him out."

Daryl shifted uncomfortably as he seemed to be considering my idea.

"No it's madness, you don't know how many walkers are in those woods, you could get killed in the process." Dale tried to reason. I shrugged out of my Moms grip as frustration coursed through me. How come no one else could understand that we can't leave Dad out there by himself?

"If he comes back before you and Daryl track him down then you would have risked your lives for nothing." Mom spoke gently.

"Or we could go out there and save him." My teeth gritted as I walked around in a circle, not knowing what to do.

After what seemed like hours of waiting Dad had finally emerged from the woods. Relief washed over me but sadness was quick to replace it as I realized he was alone.

He explained to us quickly that he had found Sophia and told her to hide while he led the walkers away from her but when he returned she was nowhere to be seen.

"We'll go out after her." He reassuered Carol as she began to sob.

"Yeah, we'll get her back, Carol." I nodded.

"You're not coming." Dad turned towards me, his voice stern.

"I wasn't asking." I glared back to him, my gaze determined. I checked the ammo in my rifle before starting off after Glenn and Daryl towards the fence. I heard Dad sigh from behind me before following us out.

"There's clear prints right here." Daryl muttered almost to himself before turning to Dad. "She did what you said and headed back to the highway."

We followed Daryl carefully through the bush, creeping along and checking around us as we went. Dad had made me stay between him and Shane in the line, stubbornness set in but I decided not to argue with him seeing as I had made it this far into the woods with them.

"She was doing just fine until she got to here." Daryl spoke up, looking to tracks the rest of us couldn't see. "All she had to do was keep going straight but then she veered off this way."

"Why would she do that?" Glenn asked the group at large.

"Maybe she saw something," Shane was the one to answer. "Spooked her."

"Best thing to do is for you, Nikki and Glenn to head back to the highway and let everyone know we're on her trail." Dad spoke to Shane quietly.

"I'm not leaving you." I rolled my eyes. "What's the point of arguing about this every time when you know I'm not going to give in?"

I watched Dads jaw jump as he stared me down, considering what I had said.

"Fine, but you stay between Daryl and me." He warned, pointing to me.

After Glenn and Shane had left to go back to the highway we began following Sophia's trail through the woods again. Dad shoving me in front of him.

After a while of stepping carefully through the bush we came to a halt as Daryl shoved an arm out in front of us to stop us in our tracks. He turned to us, finger on his lips before pointing in the direction of the walker he had spotted limping around close by.

I watched as he raised his arrow, a second later an arrow had entered the walker's skull.

We rushed towards the walker, stepping as lightly as we could. Dad began to examine the now lifeless body, turning it over onto its back.

"It fed recently." He muttered. "There's flesh caught in its teeth."

I felt my stomach somersault before shaking my head. I refused to throw up right now.

My eyes widened in horror as Dad pulled out his knife, ripping open the walkers shirt. "Here, I'll do it." Daryl muttered stepping over the body. "How many kills have you skinned and gutted in your life, anyway?"

I watched as Daryl's knife cut through the walker's flesh as though it were butter. The smell making me crinkle my nose as he pulled the intestines out of his way.

Bile rose in my stomach as I swallowed thickly, determined not to throw up.

"Had a big meal not long ago," Daryl muttered, his hands now deep in the walkers gut. "I can feel it in there."

Daryl had cut open the stomach and was now examining what looked like a bone he had pulled from it.

"Had a woodchuck for lunch." He informed us, squinting at the marred bone.

"Good news." I nodded, looking away from the sight before me.

"Yeah, it is." Dad muttered, before turning towards me. "Feeling okay, Nic?"

I nodded before turning away from the gutted Walker.

When it began to get dark we decided to make our way back to the highway. Shoulders slumped at the thought of telling Carol that her little girl would have to spend the night in the woods.


	11. Chapter 11

I was perched on the bonnet of one of the vehicles. Away from the group but still in sight. My mind was racing with all of the possibilities of where Sophia could be.

Hopefully, she had found an empty house and was holed up away from the wind and the walkers that lurked outside. Even better yet, she had found another group of survivors that were kind and took her in and fed her.

Any other outcome made a shiver run through my spine. Carl had been noticeably down since Sophia's disappearance, she was, after all, the only other child in the group and her and Carl had got along particularly well.

"We'll find her, y'know?" Glenn's voice pulled me out of the reverie, I looked up to see him watching me with a look I knew was supposed to be reassuring.

"Is it exhausting being so positive all the time?" I half smiled back to him, the corner of his mouth tugging upwards. "I hope we do."

"Thinking about your Dad too?" My gaze dropped to Glenn's shoes at this. When we came back from the search without Sophia, Carol had blamed my Dad for leaving her and not protecting her properly when he previously found her in the woods. No one had seen Dad since he wandered off between the abandoned vehicles, away from the group. "No one blames your Dad for any of this, Carol doesn't either, she's just upset."

I nodded, not lifting my head, Glenn's arms were placed around my shoulders as he buried my head into his neck, squeezing me tightly. After a while I pulled away patting his sides as I leaned back.

"Think I'm gonna go find Dad." I muttered, giving him a small smile.

It wasn't hard to figure out where Dad had gone. The car we had arrived in was parked in the direction he had headed after Carols accusations.

Pulling the door open, I dropped into the passenger seat beside him. Picking up the Sheriffs hat from the console between us, I placed it on my head.

"I know that you protected Sophia the best that anyone could have possibly protected her." My words came out slowly and carefully, making sure they sank in.

"I don't know if I did, Nic." He muttered, still not looking at me.

"Do you remember when I was fifteen and I had a massive crush on Billy White?" I couldn't help but grin at the memory and I was happy to see a grin tugging at the corner of Dads mouth.

"He was a jerk, and he was too old." He shook his head, sighing deeply. "You hated me for that."

"Yeah I did," I shrugged, causing both of us to laugh. "But you were right, he was a jerk, how many girls has he got pregnant and abandoned since then? I hated you at the time but I love you so much more for it now." Dad sighed deeply before turning his head towards me. "I know you protected Sophia just as well as you would have protected me or Carl out there."

I leaned across the console and gave him a kiss on the cheek, squeezing his hand briefly.

"You should keep the hat." He grinned glancing to the top of my head. I smirked before taking it off and placing it back on his head.

"Think it's yours for another while, give it to Carl when it's time to pass it on."

* * *

The next morning, at sun rise, we called a group meeting. Everyone was going to have to pitch in in the search for Sophia.

Dad placed a roll of weapons across the nearest car bonnet before announcing that everyone should take one.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need." Andrea spoke up, glancing at the roll distastefully. "What about the guns?"

"We've been over that," Shane said somewhat impatiently. "Daryl, Rick, Nikki and I are carrying, we can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about." Andrea sighed.

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment," Shane carried on. "A herd happens to be passing by, that's game over for all of us."

"But yet the kid gets one?" I narrowed my eyes as she gestured in my direction.

"I'm trained." I snarled back at her.

"Nikki's been around us and guns since she could walk, that's not up for discussion." Dad shook his head.

"So you need to get over it." Shane said pointedly to Andrea as she huffed in frustration.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles," Daryl began explaining the route, the tension defusing slightly as the others focused on what Daryl was telling them. I narrowed my eyes one last time at Andrea as she glared back at me. Shooting her a look before turning my attention to Daryl. "Turn around and come back down again the other side. Chances are she'll be by the creek."

"Stay quiet and stay sharp." Dad warned everyone. "Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."

"I'm going with you." Carl spoke up as we began assembling our packs. "You need people right? To cover as much ground as possible."

Carl and I both watched as Dad sighed loudly before looking in Moms direction.

"Your call," She shrugged. "I can't always be the bad guy."

"Okay, but always within our sight, no exceptions." Dad sighed, patting Carl on the shoulder, I watched as Mom shook her head in slight disbelief.

"So that's both of my kids wandering around the woods." She sighed, raising her eyes to the sky.

"We're not wandering we'll be with everyone else." I muttered reassuringly, bumping my shoulder off hers.

* * *

I glanced back as I heard Carl talking loudly to Shane. We were now deep in the woods, I tried to concentrate on my footing as Carl's words drifted to my ears.

"Keep it down," I heard Shane snap at him. "We're looking for Sophia."

I grit my teeth, Carl loved Shane, always has, I knew how much it would hurt Carl to hear Shane talking to him so impatiently.

"C'mon squirt." I grinned at my little brother, pulling him in front of me.

"I think Shane's mad at me." He muttered, looking towards the ground as we walked.

"Shane's just worried about Sophia, that's all." Mom spoke up from in front of us. I rolled my eyes before crouching down to Carl's ear.

"Shane can be an ass." I muttered, my little brother smirked before moving to walk alongside Mom, looking a lot more cheerful.

After another while of walking I felt Glenn's arm against my stomach, bringing me to a stop. I frowned to him in confusion, he answered me by pointing ahead.

Daryl, Dad and the others were all crouched low in the bush, watching something intently. Glenn and I followed their lead, bending until I could just barely see over Shane's shoulder.

I realized what they were looking at was a grey tent set up in a small clearing between a few trees.

"Could she be in there?" I whispered to no one in particular. It was Daryl that answered.

"There could be a whole bunch of things in there."

I raised my gun and aimed, allowing my eyes to search the surrounding area as we followed Daryl and began to sneak towards the tent.

Dad, Shane, Daryl and I crept towards the bush, somehow I had found myself in front of Dad in the advance, it was short lived though as he grabbed my elbow and pulled me behind him so I was between him and Shane.

I held my breath as Daryl advanced towards the tent alone, Dad and Shane each placing a hand either in front of me or on my shoulder to stop me from going any further.

Daryl threw his hands in the air, shrugging slightly as he glanced back to us, not being able to make out what was in the tent.

I winced as Dad called Carol to come towards us.

"Call out softly," He told her. "If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

"Sophia, sweetie." Carol began to call in her timid voice. I found my eyes scanning the area around Daryl, getting ready to spring in to action if anything should try and harm him. "Sophia, it's Mommy."

"Stay with the others." Dad growled to me as he and Shane moved closer to the tent. I didn't try to argue as I realized everyone else was left unprotected if I moved with them.

My breath hitched as Daryl stepped into the tent. Coughing and covering his nose, I realized it was because of the smell emitting from the old tent. Clearly a bad sign.

"It ain't her." My breath came out as one when Daryl appeared from the tent unscathed.

"What's in there?" Carol asked, almost not wanting to know the answer.

"Some guy, did what Jenner said." Daryl sighed. "Opted out."

I felt my shoulders relax slightly as a wave of disappointment washed over me due to the fact that we hadn't found Sophia.

Turning to ask Daryl which direction we were going next, my words got cut off by the sounding of church bells nearby.

The sound was almost haunting in the deserted woods and caused panic in every one of us as we looked to each other. Where were they coming from?


	12. Chapter 12

_I just want to say thank you to each and every person who has followed, Favorited and reviewed this story, those of you who read every chapter or even just read one, thank you so much for the support of my little fanfiction._

 _I'm hoping you all love Nikki just as much as I do and the bond between her and Rick is quickly becoming my favorite._

 _Keep the reviews coming as I love to hear your opinions!_

* * *

The sound of heavy breathing and pounding footsteps bounced off the trees around us as we sprinted towards the source of the ringing bells.

My lungs were protesting heavily against the speed my legs were carrying me but the thought of finding Sophia kept me running through the sharp pains stabbing at my chest as my lungs begged for air.

"It's done." I shouted as the longest silence yet sounded through the forest after the last bell. Dad was pretty sure he knew where the sound was coming from so we carried on none the less.

After a while we came to a large clearing in the woods, a small white chapel sat in the middle of the clearing with a graveyard scattered around it.

I quickly climbed the small set of steps up to the chapel, falling in line behind Dad, Shane and Daryl. I pulled my sickle from my belt as Dad signaled to us to keep quiet.

My breath caught in my throat as the doors of the chapel were pushed open. A small number of people were sat inside the church, facing the alter. It was almost as if we had just interrupted morning mass.

At the sound of the doors creaking open each walker turned in their respective pews. Groaning soon met my ears as they each stood, jaws snapping at the first bit of food they've seen in god knows how long.

Snapping myself from my reverie and I walked forward with the others, sickle at the ready. A walker came towards me that looked like he could have been an old farm hand. He was dressed in an old, dirty brown t-shirt with dungarees pulled over it.

His unhinged jaw snapped at the sight of me in front of him, bracing myself I clenched my fist tight around the handle of the sickle and jumped forward, swinging my weapon at the same time.

I tried to not think about what I was doing as the sickle stuck in the side of the walkers head, causing him to fall limply to the floor, finally free of all animation.

Looking around I could see each walker laying now lifeless on the floor of the church, bludgeoned in their own way from whichever one of us took it down.

"Yo J.C, you taking requests?" Daryl mumbled up to the statue of Jesus watching over us from the alter.

I turned back to the corpses laying on the floor, wondering how long they had been here. How long did it take for them to die? These were clearly people who had come down for a routine morning mass and had been left to this fate.

"We'll get used to it." Daryl mumbled from beside me, he was watching me as I stared at the corpses on the floor.

"I really hope we don't." I muttered back to him, tearing my eyes away from the walkers.

"There's no steeple, Rick!" Shane was doing his best to convince Dad that this chapel was not the source of the ringing bells. Dad had opened his mouth to argue back but before the words left his lips a loud ringing sounded once more.

Daryl reacted the quickest, leaving my side to sprint out of the doors we had entered and make his way around the chapel. The rest of us were quick to follow.

"It's on a timer." He panted, pointing up to the speaker hooked up to the wall of the chapel. I watched in hopelessness as Glenn rushed forward to a control box and dislodged some wires, bringing the ringing sound to a stop.

"I'm gonna go back inside for a bit." Carol whispered before climbing the steps to the chapel once more. I focused on my shoes as I told myself repeatedly not to cry. It had felt like we had come so close to finding Sophia. My Dads arm was around my shoulder, squeezing me to him as I buried my head in his chest, his other arm around Carl.

I didn't remove my focus from my Dads comforting warmth as he led Carl and I into the chapel.

* * *

The tears fell hot and fast down my cheeks as Carol pleaded for the mercy of her daughter. I turned my body into Dad, circling my arms around his waist as he squeezed me back with one arm, his other resting on Carl's shoulder.

After we were all finished in the chapel we filed outside to figure out our next move. I stood with my back to the group, wiping the tears from my cheeks quickly, not wanting anyone else to see that I had been crying.

A red cloth appeared in front of me as I sniffled loudly, I looked up to see Daryl passing by, the red rag held out at arm's length.

He didn't say anything, just looked to the red rag in his hand pointedly before thrusting it in my direction one last time. I gave him a small smile before taking it, dabbing my eyes quickly.

Arms encircled me once more and I knew from the scent that it was Glenn who was hugging me to his chest.

"Why did the world have to go to shit like this?" I mumbled into his shirt. "Everything was okay, we were happy. No one asked for any of this."

"We'll be okay." Glenn muttered into my hair, rubbing my back repeatedly. I took a moment to pull myself together, drying my eyes with the rag that Daryl had given me and shoving my hair from my face.

"Ya'll gotta follow the creek bed back, okay?" Shane announced to the group, causing everyone to turn to him. "Daryl, you're in charge. Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area for another hour or so just to be thorough."

"You're splitting us up?" Daryl spoke up. "You sure?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I want to stay." Carl announced, looking to Dad pleadingly. "I'm her friend."

"Just be careful, okay?" Mom patted Carl's shoulder.

"I'll look after him." I told her sincerely.

"No you won't, you're staying with your mother." Dad told me, sternly.

"You've got to be kidding me." I sighed deeply. "Why do you insist on having this argument every single time? I'm going with you."

"Nicole, I need you to stay and protect your mother." Dad had now walked until he was stood directly in front of me, I didn't miss the use of my full name. "You can fight, I know you can. So I know Daryl and Glenn need your help more than Shane and I do."

I sighed once more before nodding, maybe leaving Mom on her own with the group wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Here, take this," Dad told Mom, holding out his Colt Python to her. "Remember how to use it?"

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed, I've got Nikki." Mom laughed slightly, placing her hand on my shoulder.

"Here, I've got a spare." Daryl walked forward, holding out a small handgun. "Take it."

My eyes narrowed at the sound of Andrea huffing impatiently, shaking her head and glaring at Mom as she stomped past us after the rest of the group.

I rolled my eyes, causing Mom to smile gently before pushing me forward, falling in step with the others.

* * *

"So this is it?" Carol asked as we stepped over fallen branches and leaves, weaving between the trees. "This is the whole plan?"

"I guess the plan is to whittle us down into smaller and smaller groups." Daryl answered her from the front of the group as we all stopped to take a break.

"Carryon knives and pointy sticks." Andrea said, smirking sarcastically. "I see the Grimes' have guns though."

"Did either of us try to blow our brains out with one?" I asked her, narrowing my eyes and setting my jaw as I stood tall in front of her.

"If you want it, take it." Mom stepped in front of me, holding her gun out to Andrea. "I'm sick of the looks you're giving me and Nikki. Honey, I can't imagine what you're going through," Mom continued, turning her attention to Carol. "I would do anything to stop it but you have got to stop blaming Rick. It's in your face every time you look at him. When Sophia ran he didn't hesitate, did he? Not for a second. I don't know that any of us would have gone after her the way that he did, or made the hard decisions that he had to make or that anybody could have done it any differently."

Pride swelled in my stomach at Moms words, it was nice to hear her sticking up for Dad. He was eating himself up too much over Sophia without having Carols glare on him every time he had to address the group. Everyone stood in silence, not daring to argue with Mom on this.

"My Dad is a protector." I spoke up, forcing myself to make eye contact with everyone in the circle. "It's what he's always done. In his job, with me and Carl, even with Mom. He looks after the people he cares about to the best of his abilities and if he doesn't think he can do that, he will step down." Everyone met my gaze as they took in my words, knowing them to be true. Glenn and Andrea had experienced it first hand in Atlanta. "I can guarantee you that if Dad hadn't found us when he did, most of us wouldn't be standing here right now. Probably even none of us."

"If you think you can do this without him then go ahead, nobody is stopping you." Mom finished my speech before taking a mouthful from her water bottle.

Andrea slowly advanced towards Mom, holding the gun out to her as she went. Offering it back.

Once Mom took it she looked between the two of us. "We should keep moving."

I nodded slightly towards her, understanding her words as the closest to an apology I was going to get. We didn't need to be fighting in a world like this one. It was the last thing we needed to be doing.

We continued our way through the forest, weaving between the trees and looking around to make sure there was no walkers close by.

I was just about to ask how long more we had left when a gunshot rang out through the woods. Mom and I looked to each other at the same time. Panic mirrored on the others face. Something was wrong.


	13. Chapter 13

_Once again I am forever grateful for the support of this story!_

 _Right now, I have a question for you guys, when you're leaving your review could you tell me when you think Daryl and Nikki should get together? I'm purely curious._

 _Should it be on the Farm, in the Prison, Terminus, Alexandria, or should they just not be together at all? Let me know in your reviews!_

 _Thank you so much once again guys!_

* * *

We were stood still, Mom and I. Both of us scanning the trees in what we could only assume was the direction the gunshot had come from.

After what felt like an eternity we had no other choice but to continue on after the others back to the highway.

"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked Mom who had stopped for the umpteenth time to scan the forest around us.

"Why one?" She mumbled. "Why just one gunshot?"

"Maybe they took down a walker?" Daryl shrugged.

"Please do not patronize me." Mom snapped at him, spinning to face the rest of the group.

"Neither Dad nor Shane would have wasted a single gunshot on just one walker." I reasoned back, daring them to argue with me.

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol asked quietly.

"Exactly." I mumbled, scanning the trees one more time.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway," Daryl shrugged once again, the slight boredom in his voice made my jaw set stubbornly as my eyes narrowed at him. "Can't run around the woods chasing echoes."

"But it was okay for us to risk our necks going into a walker infested city for your thick as shit brother?" I knew my voice was rising but the anger inside of me was making it difficult to control.

"It was your old mans fault that Merle was stuck in that infested city in the first place!" Daryl argued back, walking towards me.

"Guys, there's no point in arguing." Glenn mumbled from somewhere behind Daryl.

"If it wasn't for my old man no one would have made it back alive from that city." I was holding his gaze as strongly as I could, barely letting myself blink. We were so close now that I could feel his breath washing over my face, fast and hot as he tried to keep his cool. His blue eyes seemed to stand out now more than ever, probably from the thick grime that now covered his skin. Or maybe it was from the rage that was burning behind them. The rage that he was trying to keep control of.

"So what do we do?" Mom asked, trying to diffuse the tension that was vibrating off of me and Daryl.

"Same as we've been," Daryl answered, breaking our eye contact to look over my shoulder at Mom. "Beat the bush for Sofia, make our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back there." Andrea reasoned with me and Mom.

Letting out a breath I didn't know I was holding I continued on through the bush, keeping my distance from Daryl and making sure to stay beside Glenn.

"Told ya he's an ass." Glenn muttered just low enough for me to hear. I smiled slightly but didn't reply, Daryl got on my nerves but I felt like I was the only one that was allowed to call him names.

"I'll tell ya what it's worth." We turned to see Daryl making his way over to Carol and Andrea, I sucked in another breath as I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "Not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying. We're gonna locate that little girl, she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one sane around here? Good Lord." He finished before taking up lead in the front of the group once more.

"He cares more than he likes to think he does." I mumbled back to Glenn who only nodded absently in response.

* * *

After a while of walking I found myself in stride with Daryl, he made tracking seem so effortless but up close I could see how his eyes scanned the ground and the trees around us.

"What're you looking for?" I heard myself asking him after a while.

"Marks from where we walked through." He grumbled back, not looking at me. "You can see where we moved some of the earth and the leaves from before."

"How'd you learn how to track? I can't see any marking at all, everything looks the same."

"Been doing it since I could walk." Was his only answer.

I knew when to stop the conversation with Daryl, maybe that's why I seemed to irritate him less than the others. They pried too much, tried to make too much of an effort.

When Daryl is done talking I didn't see the point in pushing the conversation, simple as that. It was something the others hadn't seemed to get yet.

So after this short conversation I let myself fall back in step with Glenn.

* * *

"I think we should call it." Daryl announced after another while of walking. The sun was beginning to set, tinges of orange beams were making their way through the tree tops to the forest floor, it could be pretty under different circumstances.

"How much longer?" I asked, my feet were beginning to throb and my ankle was starting to niggle from where I'd fell on it before. Frustration seeped through me once more when a thought surfaced to my mind that maybe now my ankle was always gonna give me trouble on runs like this.

"'Bout a hundred yards as the crow flies." Daryl answered.

I tried to stay positive as we climbed through the bush, thorns and branches catching at our clothes and skin. I could feel a sheen of sweat gathering on the back of my neck and across my forehead.

A shrill cry sounded through the woods, tearing through my heart as it met my ears.

"Andrea?" Mom called, spinning around to where the cry was coming from. I realized just before this that Andrea was no longer with our group and dread swarmed my body. I didn't even realize I was running until Andrea came into sight, a walker falling on top of her.

My speed picked up, sickle gripped firmly in one hand as I jolted my gun up, ready to use the butt of it as another weapon.

The sound of us thundering through the woods was infiltrating my ears along with Andreas cry and the terrible groaning sound from the walker that was trying to tear at her flesh.

Somewhere in the back of my mind I realized that the thundering sound was too loud to be all of us, we were too thin and light at this stage to make the ground vibrate with each footfall.

Before any of us could take it in a horse had thundered through the bush, Andreas screams had disappeared along with the sound of the walker groaning.

"Lori!" I looked up to the person that was calling my Mom, urgency in her voice. She was astride a large chestnut colored stallion, a bat gripped in her small fist, she was glancing to each of us in desperation as she continued to call for Lori.

"I'm Lori." Mom panted as she stopped running, I felt my chest burning, demanding more air from my running but the confusion of this stranger's appearance was distracting me from the burning.

"Rick sent me, you gotta come now." The girl's heavy southern accent was demanding, almost pleading.

"What?" Mom asked, clearly just as baffled as I was.

"There's been an accident, Carl's been shot." She spoke quickly, and just like that the little breath I had left my lungs, I placed my hands on my knees as my heart rate began to speed up. Pounding against my rib cage.

Flashbacks filled my mind of Mom sitting down beside me, she was wearing a grey dress and her hair was in an up style, a small amount of make up on her features as she told me that Dad had been shot. Another flashed in front of me of us packing the car, ready to drive towards the city with the hope of a cure for this nightmare outbreak that was happening worldwide, Shane bursts in through the front door, his face pale and distraught, shaking his head minutely at the carpet as Mom asked him where Dad was.

"Nikki," Glenns voice brought me back to the forest floor and the smell of the horse, his hands were on my back, gripping my shoulders. "Nikki you need to get it together right now."

I looked up to see Mom mounting the horse, gripping tightly onto the girls small waist.

"Woah woah, we don't know this girl!" Daryl protested, grabbing my forearm as I made my way to the horse.

"Let go of me now." I demanded, I knew on some level that my voice spat warning towards him but he didn't back away from my glare.

"You can't get on that horse."

"My brother was shot!" I shouted back at him, still attempting to free my arm from his grasp. I heard the girl shouting information at the others as Daryl and I argued. "Mom!"

"You'll be able to find us honey but right now you need to stay with Daryl." Mom pleaded back to me and I knew right then I was out numbered.

I watched in desperation as Mom disappeared with the girl through the woods.

"We'll get there as quick as we can." Daryl mumbled, his voice a lot softer now. I noticed his grip on my arm had loosened and he was now gently pulling me in the direction of what I assumed would be the highway.

"How am I supposed to just not know?" I asked no one in particular.

"The sooner we get back to the highway the sooner we get you to your family." Glenn reassured me, placing his arm around my shoulders as Daryl's grip disappeared.

A new determination filled me as I practically sprinted in the direction Daryl was leading us. My subconscious was aware of how slow Andrea and Carol were moving and I couldn't help but be annoyed.

* * *

"Dale, Carl was shot." I heard Glenn calling as the railing of the highway came into sight.

"What do you mean, shot?" Dale asked.

"I dunno I wasn't there," Glenn panted back. "All I know is this chick rode out of nowhere on a horse and took Lori."

"We have to go, now." I spoke to no one in particular as I climbed over the railing.

"Calm down for a minute." The low growl behind the voice told me it was Daryl that was speaking to me.

"We don't know where they are, we don't know who they're with, we don't know if Carl is –" My words stopped in my mouth, they wouldn't come out. I couldn't even think about the possibility of what could be happening to Carl right now.

"That girl said Carl is alive." Daryl argued back, he was keeping his voice low as if he was trying to calm me.

"We don't know how quickly that could change, if he has medical supplies with him." I realized then that there were tears rolling down my face, hot and wet. I swiped at them angrily as I turned away from Daryl, angry at myself for crying.

"We have to organize the group first, do this as best we can." Daryl reasoned, I was grateful to him for not giving me the "He's a tough kid" speech. I heard it too many times when Dad was in the hospital.

"So let's do it." I nodded, sniffing loudly and making sure the remains of the tears were gone from my face as I turned towards the group.

"I won't do it, we can't just leave." Carol was saying, her eyes met mine for a millisecond before she turned back to Dale.

"Carol the group is split." Dale told her. "Scattered and weak."

"What if she comes back and we're not here, it could happen." I looked to the ground, pity welling up inside of me for the woman pleading with us, desperation clear in her voice.

"If Sophia was to come back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea nodded.

"All we have to do is organize who's coming to the farm with me." I told them.

"I'd say tomorrow morning is enough chance for us to pull up stakes," My head spun in Daryls directions at these words, gaping towards him as he continued to speak. "We'll leave her some supplies, I'll hold up here tonight, stay in the RV."

"If the RV is staying then so am I." Dale nodded along.

"Carol I feel for you I really do and I want Sophia to be safe but I really need to go right now and find out what's going on with my family." I reasoned, pleading to her.

"Well if you're all staying." Glenn began to speak, before I could argue with him Dale spoke up.

"Not you Glenn, you're going. Nikki has to find out where her family is and what's happening with them but most importantly you have to get T-Dog there. That cut has gone from bad to worse he has a very serious blood infection, get him to that form and see if they have any anti-biotics."

"Why'd you wait till not to say anything?" Daryl asked, striding towards Merle's motorcycle. We all watched as he pulled out a clear sandwich bag from the back of the bike. It was filled with what looked like pill containers. "Crystal, some kick ass painkillers, it's all here."

* * *

"Thanks for coming along with me." I mumbled to Glenn as we stocked our bags with more water and some fruit we'd found that was still slightly edible.

"You need to know." He smiled back to me reassuringly. "I think everything's gonna be fine."

"Course you do."I smirked, rolling my eyes and making him laugh. "The day I worry is the day when you think something bad is gonna happen."

"You guys know where you're going?" Daryl shouted to us as he made his way over to the car we were searching for supplies.

"Yeah it sounded like a pretty straight forward route." Glenn nodded before leaving my side to go check on T-Dog.

"Good job Merle was as adventurous as he was." I laughed, looking over to where T-Dog was stood, looking more together and aware the he had in a while. "Sorry about what I said before." I mumbled, turning back to Daryl.

"Nah, you were worried." He shrugged.

"Still it's not an excuse." I shrugged back awkwardly, talking about feelings with Daryl isn't something that comes naturally so I wasn't shocked when he didn't reply.

"You and your Dad are real close." It was more an observation than a question but I nodded along anyway. "Sorry 'bout your arm." He mumbled.

I looked down to see a few light bruises starting to blossom on my arm from where he had gripped me tightly before.

"Not gonna kill me is it? You were trying to keep me safe." I could have sworn I saw a slight tinge of red under the thick grime coating his face. "Besides it didn't even hurt, think you're softer than ya look." I teased, this made him smirk and I was slightly caught off guard, I don't think I'd ever seen Daryl Dixon smiling.

"Oh yeah and what are you? All gunpowder and lead?" He teased back, focusing on his arrow.

"Oh you best remember that." I laughed, leaving him to go find Glenn so I could get back to my family.


	14. Chapter 14

The feedback I have been getting for this story is just simply overwhelming, I love you all so much for it! It's really what keeps me motivated and interested in Nikkis story!

Also in my previous chapter I asked you guys when you think Nikki and Daryl should get together or if they should be together at all and I was so happy to read that everyone is rooting for Nikki and Daryl!

As for when they'll get together, I'll just keep that to myself! heehee

You have no idea how much I love hearing from you guys on what you think of this story so please please keep the feedback coming!

Love you guys!

* * *

I couldn't help but glance to my left at T-Dog every now and again. The medication from Merle's stash had definitely worked wonders, keeping him awake and upright of his own accord but I couldn't help but notice every time we hit a bump in the road he let out a significant grunt of pain.

"How much longer do you think we have left?" I asked Glenn, trying to sound casual although I'm sure anything else heard in my voice would be picked up as worry for Carl.

"It can't be too long more." He replied. The thought occurred to me on numerous times that we didn't know anything about these people, we didn't know if they were actually looking after my family we only knew that they at least had them in their home.

Did they have medication, supplies? Is that why Carl was being kept there. If he was being treated then he had to be alright. There had to be hope.

"This has got to be it." Glenn whispered more to himself than either of us. He had turned into a long drive, a large white farm house was positioned at the end of the winding dirt road. It could have been beautiful in another life, it almost looked like something from the movies. Something from The Notebook.

I jumped out of the truck after Glenn, T-Dog moving more slowly. My hand automatically went to my sickle as we approached the steps to the porch, my eyes trained on the spots of blood that were leading up them.

"So do we ring the bell?" Glenn asked, he was carrying his gun as well but limply. "It looks like people live here."

"We're past this kind of stuff, homie." T-Dog shook his head as he led the way up the steps.

"Close the gate up the road when you drove in?" The voice made Glenn and I jump, the girl from earlier, the one who was on the horse, was nestled into a chair in the shadows, her arms resting on her knees.

"Uh, hi." Glenn stuttered, clearly trying to hide his shock. "Yes we closed it, did the latch and everything." A short, awkward silence filled the air before Glenn began talking again. "Nice to see you again, we met before, briefly."

"I need to see my brother." I interrupted, desperation clear in my voice this time. "You said he was here when you came to get my Mom?"

"Yeah he's here." The girl nodded. "I'll show you to his room."

We filed into the house which was just as rustic and antique as it was on the outside. Everything about it boasted a home, probably once filled with a number of children and always busy.

The girl pointed Glenn and T-Dog towards the kitchen before leading me to a large door, she knocked on it once and an unmistakably older voice called for her to come in. Sucking in a breath I stepped into the room, I felt the breath freeze in my lungs.

Mom and Dad had both jumped to their feet, their arms wrapping around me tightly but I could only halfheartedly hug them back. My eyes were trained on Carl, he was lying, unconscious in bed, looking smaller than ever and as white as the sheet underneath him.

"How's he doing?" I heard myself ask.

"Shane's gone to get some more medical supplies that are needed, until that we can only wait but he's stable for now." Dad told me quietly.

I watched as an older man who was sat at the other side of Carl's bed stood. He was obviously the girl's father.

He pulled the blankets down from around Carl's torso, I wanted to tell him to stop, that he'd be cold if he did that but the words evaporated from my mouth when I saw my little brothers stomach. White gauze was taped onto his skin, a large red circle in the middle of it, unmistakably blood. But none of that was what shocked me, what made my hair stand on end was the purple and yellow bruising that was covering a large portion of his stomach, elevated by some swelling.

"They don't get back soon we're gonna have a decision to make." The older man told my Dad.

"And that is?"

"Whether to operate on your boy without the respirator."

"Operate?" I asked loudly, frowning. No one answered me.

"You said that wouldn't work." Mom spoke up.

"I know, it's highly unlikely but it seems we won't have a choice." I felt tears stinging my eyes at the older man's words. Mom and Dad quickly left the room.

I moved closer to Carl's bed, sitting down beside him and taking his hand in mine.

"Remember the time I skipped school and you found out and told Mom and Dad." I couldn't help but smile at the memory. I don't know if Carl could hear me or not but this is the way I used to talk to Dad in the hospital. Sharing some old memories that make me laugh now. "I didn't speak to you for two weeks and you were the golden child because of it. Nearly killed me that Dad got so angry." I felt the tears spill over as I thought back on the memory, it wasn't that long ago but it felt like a million years ago in a different life. "And in the finish up you got so worried that I was never gonna talk to you again that you started sneaking me your bit of dessert and whatever cookies Mom had got that week. Said I'd never let you live it down and I never ever will."

The tears were flowing fast and hot down my face now, my lip quivering. I knew the older man was still in the room with us but I didn't care. It was easy to pretend that it was just Carl and I on our own.

"You have to wake up and show Dad that he's not the only one in the family that can survive a gunshot wound. We could tease him for weeks, tell him it's no big deal if his kid could do it too."

I bent my head down to Carl's, gently kissing him on the forehead. "Please wake up." I whispered before squeezing his hand one last time before letting it go and exiting the room.

Making my way out onto the porch I dropped into the chair the girl from earlier was sitting in. My elbows rested on my knees as I held my face in my hands, trying to get the tears to stop. There was no point in crying, Carl was going to make it. I knew he was.

As my tears began to subside that's when I heard them. Angry whispers. I strained my hearing once I realized it was Mom and Dad, they were at the other side of the porch arguing over something, not aware that I was there.

"I turned around to tell Jacqui something, I almost said her name. It was just a second and then I remembered." I could hear Mom saying, for some reason I couldn't move, I couldn't make myself stand up and walk back into the house even though I knew I shouldn't be listening to this conversation. "Then I realized she didn't have to see any of it. The highway, the herds, Sophia, Carl getting shot. She doesn't have to be afraid anymore, hungry, angry. It's like we live with a knife to our throats everyday Rick but Jacqui doesn't. Not anymore, and then I thought maybe Jenner was right."

My vision was flooded with red, I could hardly believe what I was hearing, the conversation that was actually taking place feet away from me. Bile rose in my stomach at the words that were unmistakably coming from my Mother.

"I can't accept that." I heard Dad answer after a while, clearly trying to keep his cool. "I won't accept that, that man surrendered, it doesn't matter what he said."

Before I knew it my legs were carrying me towards the voices, anger shaking through me. I knew my eyes were still red-rimmed from crying as I rounded the corner, Dad was stood with his back to me while Mom was facing me.

I watched as her eyes slid towards me, she knew in that instant that I heard everything.

"Nikki." She whispered, causing Dad to spin around.

"You don't even have a right to sit and cry at your son's bedside after the words that just came out of your mouth." Each word was spoken clearly and carefully. "I can't believe that our own mother would actually wish death on us."

"Nikki, come on back inside." Dad was speaking gently, his hand on my shoulder. "You're angry, you're gonna say something you regret."

"No!" I almost shouted, throwing his hand off me. "If Carl's mom, our mom, can't sit there and pray and hope with every single ounce of who she is for him to get better, for him to wake up and be able to laugh and work and make his way through this alongside us then I don't even know what to believe anymore."

I turned on my heel and stomped through the house, making my way back to Carl's room.

* * *

Minutes had passed since the confrontation had happened outside, Carl was still as pale as ever as I sat by his side, his hand held firmly.

Mom and Dad had not returned to the room but I had heard them come in, they were somewhere in the house.

Just when I started to feel my eyes getting heavy the sound of coughing shook me back to being alert. The coughing was coming from Carl.

"Hey, Carl." I called to him, Mom and Dad were at my side in seconds.

"Where are we?" He asked, looking around him frantically.

"Hey, little man." Dad spoke gently, his voice barely above a whisper. "This is Herschel, we're in his house. You had an accident."

I looked up to the older man that my Dad has gestured to, it was nice to put a name to the face.

"It hurts." Carl winced, glancing down at his waist where the bullet had entered.

"I know baby, I know." Mom muttered, stroking his head.

"You shoulda seen it." Carl smiled, glancing between Mom and I. "The deer, it was so pretty, Mom. It was so close. I don't think I've ever been –"

My breath caught in my throat as Carls eyes slid out of focus before his body started convulsing rapidly.

"It's a seizure, he has to just go through it." Herschel explained as I felt Dad dragging me away from the bedside. Once the seizures subsided Herschel rushed forward, shining a light into Carls eyes. "His brain isn't getting enough blood."

Well, c'mon then, I'm ready." Dad muttered, rolling up his sleeve to reveal a large white bandage, much like Carls. Only I understood what this meant as a flashback came rolling back to me. Mom, Carl and I in the hospital after Dad had been shot, Carl being informed that he was a blood match for Dad and him begging Mom to let him give Dad some of his blood.

"If I take any more out of you your body could shut down or go into a coma." Herschel explained.

"You're wasting time." Dad told him urgently, shoving his arm in Herschels direction. I sat back and watched as Herschel inserted the needle into Dads arm. The blood beginning to flow quickly through the tube into Carls arm.

"I'm gonna go see how T-Dog is doing." I muttered, lifting myself from my seat and exiting the room.

Walking in the direction the girl had pointed the boys in when we first arrived I found them sitting around a large wooden kitchen table.

T-Dog had his injured arm stretched across the table, a sheen of sweat covering his skin as the girl held his hand down firmly on the table. A blonde woman was sat tending to the wound as T-Dog struggled.

"You got here just in time." The blonde woman was saying. "This couldn't have gone untreated for much longer."

Glenn had a barely touched cup of tea in his hand which he shoved in my direction when he saw me. I shook my head, giving him a short smile in thanks.

"Nikki." I introduced myself to the blonde woman who was now eyeing me. "Carls sister."

"Herschel will do all he can to make sure that boy is okay again." The blonde woman smiled sympathetically.

"We appreciate it." I nodded back.

"Maggie and Patricia." Glenn muttered over T-Dogs grunts, gesturing to the girl first and then the blonde woman.

"Merle Dixon." Patricia was saying. "That your friend with the anti-biotics."

"No ma'am, Merle is no longer with us, his brother Daryl gave them to us."

"Not sure I'd call him a friend." T-Dog muttered through his pain as Patricia stitched him up.

"He is today, this doxycycline may have just saved your life. Do you know what Merle was taking it for?" Patricia asked Glenn. I cleared my throat uncomfortably before glancing to Glenn whose skin was now tinted red.

"Clap." A small smile broke onto my face at Maggies expression as she turned to Glenn. "Um, venereal disease." Glenn explained.

"Merle Dixons clap was the best thing to ever happen to you." Patricia told T-Dog, forcing me to laugh.

"I'm really trying not to think about that." T-Dog muttered back as I grinned at Glenn who was also smiling at the situation in front of us.

"Come out for some fresh air with me?" I asked Glenn quietly, he nodded before following me through the kitchen, I couldn't help but feel Maggie's eyes on us as we walked.

"How's Carl doing?" Glenn asked as I hoisted myself onto the fencing of the porch, he took the seat opposite me.

"He woke up, was talking and all, then he had a seizure and fell unconscious again. Herschel says he's not getting enough blood and Dad has nearly given him all he has."

"Maggie told us that Shane and Otis are gone for the equipment so that Herschel can operate." Glenn said, his voice was calming. "He'll be okay, Nikki."

I smiled slightly, I wouldn't have expected any other answer from Glenn.

"Mom thinks he'd be better off dead." I muttered, looking at my feet swinging above the wooden floor of the porch.

"I'm sure she doesn't" Glenn answered.

"No she does, she said it exactly herself. She and Dad were arguing about it and I overhead."

"She's scared Nikki, we all are. We don't know what's gonna happen next, where we're gonna go."

"Yeah but we fight every single day, we're fighting for Sophia right now as well, none of us have given up. That's a decision we all made back at the CDC. It's not a choice for Mom to make for Carl." I don't know when I had started crying but Glenns arms were now wrapped around me and my tears were soaking the shoulder of his t-shirt as I buried my head into his neck.

We stayed like that for a long time, Glenn shushing me quietly.

"Once Carl is better we'll find somewhere to make a home out of again and everything will be okay." Glenn muttered as I lifted my head from his shoulders.

"I'm just so angry with Mom, why does she have to jump ship every time things get a little bit hard, first with leaving Dad, then Shane and now Carl." I hadn't realized what I said until a look of confusion passed over Glenns face only to be replaced with realization. "Yeah she's been sleeping with Shane."

"Nikki, she thought Rick was dead." Glenn spoke again, his voice gentle even though the shock was still evident on his face.

"Is that really an excuse?" I almost laughed. "And I'm pretty sure I'm the only other person that knows so I have to go around lying to my Dads face every day about something so horrible and I hate that she's put me in this situation."

"Hey, things aren't as black and white as they were before, everything is more confusing and we're all just tired, the best you can do for yourself is get some sleep, I'll ask Maggie if you can borrow a bed or something."

"No, no, don't do that it's okay we'll be back with Daryl and the others soon enough, I'll sleep in the RV." I sniffled, wiping my face with the bottom of my T-shirt. "I better go see how he's doing."

As I made my way back into the house I passed Maggie in the hall way, I smiled at her shortly before continuing on to Carls room.

Dad was sitting by Carls bedside, Mom behind him. I tried to ignore the fact that Dad was now paler than Carl was, tried to ignore the dark circles that were now hanging under his eyes but it was so hard to watch him draining the life out of himself.

"He's still losing blood faster than we can give it to him." Herschel said from behind me. He had followed me into the room, going straight to check on Carl. "We can't wait any longer or he's just going to slip away."

Tears sprang back into my eyes as I looked desperately towards Mom, Dad doing the same.

"You need to tell me what it is." I heard Dad whispering to her.

"We do it." She said before meeting my eyes, I nodded to her slowly before turning my attention back to Carl, hoping with everything in me that we could get two miracles in this nightmare.

Patrica soon had a large metal surgery cot in the room, we all helped to lift Carls small frame onto it.

"Rick, Lori, Nikki." Herschel spoke to each of us as he washed his hands and arms. "You may want to step out."

Just as I was about to protest the unmistakable sound of tyres on gravel came from outside before lights flashed over the windows.

"Is it them?" I asked Dad who had rushed to the window.

We raced down the porch steps as Shane exited the vehicle, what I assumed was the medical equipment held tightly in one hand as he rushed towards us.

"Carl?" He asked, glancing to each of us.

"Still with us." I confirmed, pulling Shane into a hug.

"Otis?" Herschel asked as I relinquished my grip on Shane's shoulders. His lack of an answer was enough to confirm Otis' absence.

"Say nothing to Patricia." Herschel told everyone. "I need her."

I watched as Dad pulled Shane into a hug, every fiber of my being screaming against the brotherly action in front of me.

Was it ever gonna be the right time to tell Dad about Mom and Shane?

Now definitely wasn't it, Carl needed his family.


	15. Chapter 15

_This chapter is a whole lot of Nikki and Daryl so I would love to know your opinion on it!_

 _Also quite a few people have come to me in supporting Glenn and Nikki, which I also love because Glenn is the ultimate sweetheart but I love Maggie too much to do that!_

 _Anyway let me know what you think of Nikki and Daryls interaction in this and also what you think Nikki and Shane's relationship should be like also considering that Nikki is very close to and protective of Rick but also Shane played a massive part in her childhood._

 _Thanks again for the support guys, love you always!_

* * *

It was torture, worse than being stuck in a room with a dozen walkers. At least if that were the case you'd have something to do.

All we could do was wait, that's what we were told as Hershel retired to Carl's room with Patricia, respirator in hand.

Perched on the steps of the porch belonging to the Greene family my only view was across the dark fields and the back of Mom and Dad's heads; they were a couple of steps below me.

I wasn't aware that my knee was bobbing up and down impatiently until Glenn placed his hand on it, stilling my movement gently. Laying my hand on his and squeezing was the only acknowledgement I could make to his attempt at comfort.

Trying to stay hopeful was exhausting and doubt always found a way to creep in. My eyes drifted over the messy knot that Mom had her hair pushed back in, I felt my eyes narrow as I thought of the situation of her and Shane.

When was she going to tell Dad? Was she really going to leave it up to me to break my own father's heart?

Just as the thoughts that had been stressing me out from the beginning started to slowly seep back into my head I heard the front door swing open from behind me.

We all stood as one as Hershel emerged from the house, cleaning his hands on a cloth.

"He's stabilizing." He announced almost triumphantly. The smile that had stretched across my face was straining my cheeks but I didn't care as I felt Glenn and T-Dog hug me. Cries of glee from behind me told me that Mom was now crying happy tears at last.

* * *

I was currently sitting in Carl's room with Mom and Dad, his coloring was much better and his breathing didn't seem like it caused so much of an effort.

There was silence as we all sat, waiting for the moment that he would open his eyes.

A rumbling from outside distracted me, lifting myself from the arm chair I had slept in previously I moved to the window to investigate.

"They're here." I smiled to Mom and Dad, watching the outline of the caravan being led by Daryl's bike making its way to the farm. I couldn't help but feel warmth wash through me, the gang was gonna be all back together again.

I excused myself from the room and made my way outside, Carol reached me first giving me a tight hug, her frail body felt so fragile as I returned her hug.

"How is he?" Dale asked someone behind me, I heard Mom answer.

"He'll pull through, thanks to Hershel and his people."

"And Shane," Dad interrupted. "We woulda lost Carl if it weren't for him."

My eyes drifted through the group, stopping on Daryl who returned my eye contact. He nodded once before turning away. I couldn't help but smile, understanding that that was Daryl's version of saying "I'm glad he'll be okay." Along with giving a hug.

After we had explained to the others that Carl's shooting was nothing more than a stupid accident and that the man who had done it had sacrificed himself to save Carl's life we all made an effort to help the Greene family in creating a rockery and performing a ceremony in Otis' memory.

Hershel said a few words, being a religious man and Shane gave a speech on Otis' last moments, telling the story of how he insisted Carl had to be saved. I couldn't help but notice the obvious stress that graced Shane's features as he retold the events.

Once the ceremony was over and the Greene's were given their privacy to mourn Otis, especially Patricia, we all resumed with the plans on how best to locate Sophia, I couldn't help but be more positive as I watched Maggie spreading a map open across the bonnet of a car as we gathered round.

"How long has this girl been missing?" Hershel asked.

"This'll be day three." Dad replied before turning back to the map. "We'll grid the whole area and start searching in teams."

"Not you, not today." Hershel interrupted him sternly. "You gave three units of blood you wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out."

I nodded my head in agreement with Hershel, Dad coloring still hadn't returned normal.

"And your ankle." Hershel rounded on Shane who had a significant limp since he returned with the respirator. "Push it now and you'll be laid up for a month."

"Guess it's just me." Daryl grumbled, pulling the map towards him.

"Excuse me, I'm healthy," I raised my hand slightly, looking to the group. "I can help."

"I don't need help." Daryl growled back.

"Course you don't" I rolled my eyes, knowing I was going to look for Sophia whether he liked it or not.

"Nikki could be of use to you and I'd feel more comfortable with two of you out there." Dad added sincerely. I couldn't help but smile smugly in Daryl's direction as he looked more pissed off than ever.

"I wanna head back to the creek, work my way from there." Daryl continued, addressing the map again.

"I can still be useful." Shane piped up. "Drive back to the interstate, see if Sophia wandered back."

"Okay, we can start this thing properly then." Dad nodded.

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives, we need to gun train like we promised." Shane added, I had to refrain from rolling my eyes at the site of Andrea perking up at the mention of gun training.

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property." Hershel spoke up, looking to Dad. "We've managed so far without turning this into an army camp."

"With respect," Shane spoke back quickly. "If a crowd of those things were to wander in here?"

"Look, we're guests here," Dad announced before Hershel could retaliate. "This is your property, and we will respect that."

I watched as Dad reached for his Python before placing it on the bonnet of the car, Shane was next to surrender his gun but laid it down with much more force than was needed.

I sighed deeply before pulling out my own handgun and placing it on the bonnet with the others.

"What happens if we find her and she's bit, think we should be clear on how we handle that." Shane asked, attitude seeping from him.

"Think it's pretty clear what we have to do if that happens." I muttered, looking directly at him. "What else could we do with her?"

"You do what has to be done." Dad nodded, growing paler still.

"And her mother, what do you tell her?" Maggie asked, I couldn't help but notice the tremor of disbelief in her voice.

"The truth." Andrea shrugged.

After convincing Hershel that whoever was on watch should be armed we dispersed from the bonnet, gathering whatever supplies we needed.

"Be careful out there," Glenn said, pulling me into a hug as I made sure I had my sickle and picked the sharpest knife from our supplies. "Make sure you come back."

"I always do." I smiled, repeating his own phrase. "Don't go falling off a horse or anything in front of Maggie." I winked, laughing at the red tinge that burnt Glenn's face.

I glanced towards the dirt track to see Daryl stalking towards the woods, he was walking slower than normal, his version of waiting for me. After saying goodbye to Mom and Carl I jogged over to him, he didn't speak as I fell into step beside him.

"Daryl." I heard Dad call, making us both turn. "You'll both be okay out there, won't you?"

"We'll be fine." I called back, rolling my eyes. I felt like he was reminding me for the fiftieth time to be back before curfew.

"I'm better on my own but Nikki is a better choice than most of that group." Daryl shrugged, I frowned slightly, not knowing whether to take that as a compliment or not.

"We have a base now, we can map this thing out properly." Dad lowered his voice as he neared us.

"You got a point or are we just chattin'?" Daryl shook his head impatiently.

"My point is it lets you off the hook, you don't owe us anything." I knew Dad was being sincere but Daryl seemed to huff out his reply before strolling off towards the woods again.

I gave Dad a small shrug before jogging once more to catch up with Daryl.

"You ever lighten up, Dixon?" I asked once I'd reached him.

"You ever stop yappin', Grimes?" I smirked at this seeing as I was the only one that gave Daryl the peace he wanted.

"Whether you like it or not you're one of us now, you're part of the group." He didn't answer me as we continued on into the woods.

* * *

"Is the crossbow heavy?" I asked after what felt like years of silence. He glanced back at me, eyebrows raised before turning away again.

I was about to roll my eyes when he answered me.

"There's some rabbit droppings and scuff marks around here, you can have a go at shooting it and then you'll see." He grumbled.

"You're gonna let me try to shoot a rabbit?" I asked disbelievingly.

"You won't get to if you don't shut up." He argued back, making me laugh silently to myself. After a while I watched as he took the crossbow from his back before holding it out to me. "Take this and gimme your sickle."

My biceps protested a little at the weight of the cross bow as I tried to hold it while I handed Daryl the sickle, it wasn't so bad after I had raised it to eye level like I'd seen Daryl doing numerous times now.

"K, it should be around here somewhere, bend your knees so your steps are lighter." I tried to do as he said without looking like an absolute moron but I definitely wasn't succeeded.

I heard him hiss gently before pointing slightly to the right, the small rabbit was sitting between the roots of a large tree, sniffing the air. Part of me wondered if it picked up our scent and that's why it was currently glancing around but we were concealed in the bush.

Without making any direct contact with me Daryl gestured to where I should be looking along the crossbow, making sure it was aligned, he was bent to my level, moving the crossbow up and down to where he thought it should line up roughly with the rabbit.

I couldn't help but feel slightly sad for the creature that was in front of me, it was so cute and fluffy and harmless, not knowing or caring what was happening to the world around it.

Daryl gave me a sharp signal that I assumed meant I had to shoot so I shook myself from my reverie and felt my finger close down on the trigger. This was a different world now, we couldn't die of starvation because of the cuteness of our food.

My shoulders slumped as the arrow hit the bark about two foot over the rabbits head that had now scurried off into the woods.

"Woulda been a miracle if you hit it." Daryl grumbled, walking forward to remove his arrow from the tree. I couldn't help but feel a surge of stubbornness light up in my stomach as I watched his back retreating away from me.

"I know I can do it, I just have to get used to the weight it's different to a gun." I heard a huff escape from Daryl and I felt my mouth open in surprise when I realized what I just heard was a laugh.

"Are you laughing at me?" I asked, slightly offended.

"Y'know unless you really believe the whole "be your pray" thing then yeah I am." He grumbled back. There was no trace of a smile on his dirt caked face but I knew what I heard.

"What are you shitting on about?"

"You twitch your nose before you shoot, you look like the damn rabbit." He mumbled, taking the crossbow from me and loading the arrow back into it before handing me back my sickle.

"I do not." I argued back, slightly embarrassed.

"Fine, if you wanna believe that."

I was forced to follow him through the bush in silence for another while. Still feeling self-conscious about my nose twitching habit.

Just as I was about to ask him a question on tracking we broke through into a clearing, a dirty house was situated in the middle, the grass around it overgrown and the wooden boards graying with age.

"Stay behind me." He ordered before raising his crossbow and kicking the door open. I followed him in, sickle raised and knife held tightly in the other hand as we made sure the house was clear. Creaking floorboards was the only sound that echoed around the house.

I watched as Daryl took a tin from the trash can in the kitchen, sniffing it gingerly, making my nose wrinkle.

"Psst." I called, pointing towards what I assumed was a small pantry, floor to ceiling doors concealed it but one was cracked open slightly.

My breath stayed frozen in my lungs as I watched Daryl creep towards the doors, crossbow raised. It was like he was moving in slow motion as I glanced around us, making sure we were alone.

"She was here." He said confidently as he lowered his crossbow. Now that Daryl had opened the doors wide I could see what looked like a makeshift nest on the ground, blankets had been gathered to make a bed. "That tin hasn't been open too long, neither."

"Sophia?" I called out gingerly. "Honey, it's Nikki and Daryl, you're okay now."

I don't know what I was expecting, for Sophia to come barreling down the stairs towards us maybe or pop her head out from the living room, grinning. No matter what I expected, the silence was still disappointing.

"Maybe she saw us coming and ran, didn't realize it was us?" I suggested, Daryl shrugged before turning on his heel and making his way out of the house, calling Sophia.

"What's that?" I asked Daryl as I strode towards him, he was holding a white flower, stuffing the stem into his back pocket, making sure the petals weren't damaged.

"Something to keep Carol going." He mumbled, turning away from me and walking back towards the woods.

"You're not an asshole." I mumbled under my breath to his retreating back, grinning slightly.


	16. Chapter 16

_This was one of my favorite chapters to write and also I'm so happy with the way it turned out._

 _I love Nikki in this chapter so I hope you guys do to!_

 _Thank again for all of the love, and let me know what you think!_

* * *

Not much was said between me and Daryl for the rest of the journey back to the farm. He had lapsed back into his usual silence, a slight frown on his face but I decided not to ask any questions.

Once we had reached our base Daryl headed straight for the RV, not saying another word to me or even acknowledging that I was there but it didn't bother me. I knew it wasn't personal.

Besides, right now Carl was on my mind. When I entered the house Mom had greeted me at the door with a hug and informed me that Carl had woken earlier and, typically, asked how everyone was and if he had missed anything, she told me that Dad was currently sitting with him while he slept and that it'd be better to get some water into me and sit down for a bit.

Currently I was sat at the kitchen table sipping on a glass of water while sitting opposite Mom. Patricia was busying herself around the kitchen, washing some Delph and floating in and out of the room with various bits of laundry.

"You meet any walkers out there?" Mom asked, she was sat opposite me, watching me carefully.

"Not really, just some on the way back but they were too far away to bother us." I shrugged, lifting the glass to my mouth before placing it back down in front of me. "Got to take a shot at a rabbit with the crossbow but I missed."

I could hear the sulkiness in my own voice as I frowned at the table, looking up I knew the smirk on Moms face was due to the fact that she could hear it too.

"I'll get him next time." I smiled.

"I know you will." She laughed back, reaching across the table and taking my hand, squeezing gently.

"Sorry for what I said the other night out on the porch." I mumbled, keeping my eyes focused on our hands.

"Every emotion was running high that night, we all said things we didn't mean" Mom muttered back, squeezing my hand once again. "Y'know I love you to bits right, all of you."

A smile pulled at the corner of my mouth at this before fading again quickly.

"When are you gonna tell Dad?" My voice was barely above a whisper, I didn't elaborate but I knew I wouldn't have to.

"Nikki, now's not the time."

"Will it ever be?" I asked, my voice raising a little. "I can't keep carrying this around with me all the time it's tearing me apart and I don't want to have to be the one to tell him but if it comes to that I will."

"It's really none of your business Nicole." Mom shook her head, taking her hand from mine.

"It's my family, that's always gonna be my business." I told her fiercely before standing up. "I'm going to see Carl."

I stalked out of the kitchen and made my way to the large room Carl was staying in. I didn't bother knocking before opening the door gently, a smile spread across my face as I saw Carl grinning up at Dad from under the wide brim of the Sheriff's hat.

"What, you gotta get shot to wear the hat around here?" I asked, making my Dad and brother laugh.

"Matching scars." Carl grinned back as I took a seat on the edge of his bed, in front of Dad. "Did you find Sophia?" Carl's question made me glance quickly at Dad who nodded solemnly, he had clearly updated Carl on everything.

"No we didn't find her but we were in a house couple miles south, Daryl reckons she was holed up there for a while. We found a make shift bed in the kitchen."

"We'll find her." Carl said positively, I couldn't help but smile at how confident he was. His coloring was almost back to normal and he was a lot stronger than before.

"You need to sleep." Dad told him, pulling his blankets up higher as I stood from the bed.

"I love you guys." Carl said, looking between Dad and me.

"We love you too, squirt." I grinned, leaning in to ruffle his hair.

"I love you." Dad muttered, kissing his forehead before ushering me out of the room.

"He's gonna be okay, isn't he." I smiled to Dad as he shut the door.

"Yeah it looks like it." He smiled back to me before pulling me in for a hug. "Love you too."

"Love you." I muttered into his chest as I breathed in the familiar scent that surrounded my childhood. "I'm happy you gave him the hat."

I felt Dad sighing before he kissed the top of my head.

* * *

The heat beat down on us the next morning as we got to our chores. Carol was hanging up the laundry while Andrea was tending to the dressings on T-Dogs arm. His infection was clearing up and he seemed to be getting more use of it.

"Mornin' guys," Dad called to the camp, making his way over to the bonnet of the truck and laying another map out on it. "Let's get going, we've got a lot of ground to cover."

After we had all gathered around the truck Dad continued on with the plan for today.

"Okay everyone's getting new search grids, if she's made it as far as the house Daryl and Nikki found then she might have gone farther East than we've gone so far."

"I'd like to help." A voice interrupted us, making us turn to the source; a frightened looking Jimmy. "I know the place pretty well and stuff."

"Hershel's okay with this?" Dad asked disbelievingly, I eyed Jimmy as he nodded quickly.

"Ain't nothing about what Nikki and Daryl found screaming Sophia to me," Shane spoke loudly from the driver's seat of the truck. "Coulda been anyone holed up in that house."

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea spoke up pointedly. I narrowed my eyes at the back of Shane's head as I felt the frustration rolling off of Daryl.

"Whoever slept in that cover was no bigger than yay high?" Daryl spoke to Dad as he buttoned his shirt up.

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." Dad nodded.

"No maybe about it," Daryl muttered, studying the map. "I'm gonna borrow a horse, head up to this ridge right here, get a birds eye view of the whole grid."

"Good idea." T-Dog nodded. "Maybe you'll see your chupacabra up there too." I couldn't help but grin as T-Dog teased Daryl.

"Chupacabra?" Dad asked, his eyebrows raised.

"You never told him?" Dale asked me, looking amused.

"Our first night in camp at the quarry, we were sitting around the embers from the fire and Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of the time he went squirrel hunting and he saw a chupacabra." I laughed slightly at the memory as a smirk tugged on the corners of Dads mouth.

"What are ya grinning at, jackass?" Daryl asked defensively.

"So you believe in a blood sucking dog?" Dad fired back, taking a gun from Dale.

"D'you believe in dead people walking around?" Daryl shrugged.

Before Dad could reply he had his hand on Jimmy's arm which was reaching for the gun Dale had just laid down on the bonnet.

"Who am I going with?" I asked, shouldering the gun Jimmy was about to claim.

"Nikki, Andrea and T-Dog, you guys can take this grid." I nodded looking at the square we were given.

* * *

We had been walking for a while, not being able to find anything of interest that might lead us to Sophia.

"This is hopeless anyway, none of us can track." T-Dog muttered as we passed another one of the colored cloths we had previously pinned to a tree, a sign that we had been walking around in a circle.

"At least we're out doing something." Andrea sighed back, ducking under a low hanging branch.

"Think we should be heading back soon anyway." I said, stopping at a ridge in the earth. "We had to have covered most of the grid by now and we haven't found a thing."

Sweat was trickling from my forehead as the humidity closed in on us. Admittedly, it was a lot cooler to be out in the woods, under the shade of the trees but there was no point in exhausting ourselves more than what we had to.

"We're having dinner with the Greene's tonight too." I told them, wiping my forehead with the back of my hand. "Mom and Carol are cooking for everyone."

"Now that I could get on board with." T-Dog grinned, making me smile in return.

"So sick of everyone playing house." Andrea muttered, shaking her head.

"I'm so sick of you bitching about everything." I shot back at her, frowning.

"Oh, c'mon Nikki you know what it's like being out on these runs you honestly can't think there's anything productive coming from playing housewife in the kitchen."

"If they didn't do it then we wouldn't have clean clothes or meals at night. If you wanna eat raw squirrel and vegetables then go ahead, but if not then learn how to be a little more grateful." I glared back at her.

"C'mon guys let's just get back to the house and get some rest." T-Dog sighed, ushering Andrea towards the direction of the house.

My hands were placed firmly on my waist as I glared around at the trees trying to cool down my blood flow. Andrea and T-Dog were already a good distance ahead of me when I spotted it.

Movement between the trees, it was too big to be a walker. Curiosity made me stalk towards whatever it was, my gun held ready to be fired. I glanced back to where T-Dog and Andrea had now disappeared through the trees, I didn't need Andrea going off and bulldozing through whatever this thing could be.

For one bizarre moment I thought of the story Daryl had told us about the chupacabra and wondered if maybe we were wrong to doubt him. After all, dead people walked around with us now and Dad had survived what should have been a fatal coma along with Carl.

A laugh of relief escaped my mouth as I rounded a tree and saw the thing up close, a chestnut colored horse was standing chewing on a nearby tuft of grass.

"Hey girl," I whispered gently, extending my hand as I made my way over to the animal. "Where'd you come from?"

The horse neighed, throwing her head back as my hand reached her face, stroking her gently. An anchor may as well have slipped down my throat at the same time the lightbulb went off in my head. Daryl was borrowing a horse from the farm to go out.

"Where's Daryl." I asked no one as my frown deepened, studying the area around me for anymore movement. My heart was beating quickly at the thought of him being in danger. Daryl had become part of the family since Merle had disappeared, it wasn't time for him to go yet.

I concentrated hard on the ground around the horses hooves, trying to see what Daryl sees when he's tracking.

"Damn how does he do this?" I muttered, my head hurting already from trying to find any kind of pattern in the leaves. After another few minutes of studying the ground my feet began to carry me in the opposite direction of the horse, maybe if I moved around I would see something.

My heart leapt before my brain had registered what I was looking at, a broken branch on the side of the makeshift path. It had been snapped off the nearest tree.

This had to be where she came from, she must have broken it when she went past. My eyes scanned the ground once more but it was no use, at least if the ground was wet there'd be hoof marks but all I could see was leaves and dirt.

I carried on past the broken branch, hoping that another clue would reveal itself.

I only had to walk for a short while before I found something else, but this just made my heart sink.

A piece of cloth was hanging from the branch of a nearby tree, as I neared it I knew immediately it was from the shirt I had seen Daryl buttoning up earlier, but that wasn't what made my heart plummet to my feet, it was the view I was looking down on from here. I was standing on a large ridge, looking across what was a dried up lake, water still lodged in some areas.

I could see a body lying in the sand a good bit away but I was too far to be certain of it being Daryl.

Stepping forward carefully I squinted, _please don't let that be blood I'm looking at_ , I told myself as I tried to make out whoever it was.

The sight of the blood was distraction enough for me to forget myself and step forward, before I knew it I was falling, my gun flying out of my hands as I tried my best to grab onto anything around me as I rolled down the steep ridge. Rocks bashed me in the head as I made my way down and when I landed a sharp pain in my side made me cry out, I knew straight away that I had landed on my sickle.

Looking down I saw the blood quickly staining my vest as I pulled myself off the sickle, shouting out in the process.

I quickly ripped a shred from the bottom of my vest top, tying it back around my waist to put pressure on the wound. It was deep enough to leave a scar but it wouldn't be anything major once it stopped bleeding.

I grit my teeth as I hauled myself off the ground, my hand gripping to my side I scanned around for my gun, a frown creased my forehead when I couldn't find it anywhere.

Finally looking up, there it was wedged onto a rock jutting out from the cliff face I had just fallen down.

"Mother fuck." I swore, spinning around to find the body I had been looking down on.

He was lying a couple of yards to my left, out cold. _"Please don't be dead."_ I mumbled to myself as I made my way over to his unconscious form.

It was Daryl alright, beaten and bloody from the rocks where he had obviously fallen from. I cringed as my eyes landed on the arrow jutting out from his side.

"Daryl," I spoke clearly, lifting his hand in mine, the fingers on my other hand feeling his wrist, a breath of relief left my throat when I felt the dull throb of a pulse under his flesh. "Dixon, c'mon it's Nikki we gotta go."

He mumbled something back to me but he still didn't seem to be conscious. A groaning sound suddenly had my heart racing once more.

It wasn't coming from Daryl, I spun around to see a walker limping towards us, its jaw snapping frantically in its haste.

"Dammit, Dixon." I shouted at Daryl, slapping his face repeatedly. Gritting my teeth I grabbed the sickle that was now coated with my own blood and walked towards the walker, the same ankle that I had hurt back at the CDC was now tingling in protest but I pushed it to the back of my mind as the walker snarled in my face.

I swung as hard as I could and the blade buried itself in the skull of the walker, causing it to fall to the ground, no longer snapping.

My breath was heavy as I tried to ignore the throbbing coming from all over my body, the fall had clearly bruised me a lot more than I originally thought.

The altercation had clearly made quite a bit of an echo off the cliff face as the sound of more groaning and snapping made me sigh deeply, I squared myself up, determined to make it back to the farm with both Daryl and I alive.

My stomach flipped as two more walkers made their way into the clearing, limping right in my direction.

"Dixon, now would be a really good time to wake up!" I shouted, launching a kick at his foot. I shook myself into action as the walkers advanced on us, the one closest to me was a lot taller than I was and put up a fight.

I pushed a hand to its chest as I tightened my grip on the sickle once more, weakness coursed through me as I tried to find the strength to swing the sickle and keep the walker off me at the same time.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see the second walker knelt at Daryl's feet, grabbing his boot in its rotten hands.

The hand against the walkers chest was now starting to sink through the skin there, I could feel decaying bones brushing off my fingers. Closing my eyes tight I swung my left hand with all I could, the wound in my side protesting angrily at the movement.

The sickle stuck as it made contact with the walkers head but it didn't go all the way through to the brain, the jaw was still snapping at me, getting closer to my face and I pulled with all I could to free the sickle from its skull.

Horror washed over me as the walkers stench filled my nostrils, how was I supposed to kill it now, it was right on top of me.

Just then the walker dropped to the ground, silent. A single arrow was protruding from its skull, I looked around in amazement. Daryl was slumped on the ground, crossbow raised and still aiming towards the spot my walker had been in moments previous, the second motionless at his feet.

"Nice of you to join me, Dixon." I panted, placing my hands on my knees.

"Shut your mouth, that's the third time I've saved your ass." He grumbled back, sounding just as tired as I felt.

"We're gonna have to climb out." I muttered, looking around the cliff edge.

Daryl didn't speak another word. I watched as he pulled himself from the ground and tightened the makeshift tourniquet around his waist where the arrow had formerly been lodged.

He then proceeded to pull a dead squirrel from his belt and cut it open and gut it while sat on a log by the water.

My nose wrinkled as he offered me a scoop of bloody, raw meat he had taken from the squirrel, I shook my head but he only nudged it towards me again.

"Eat." He demanded. I knew why he was doing this, if I was gonna have any hope of climbing that cliff face I was gonna have to gather my energy.

Hesitantly, I allowed him to place the mass of blood on my hand before I threw it into my mouth, trying not to think about it. The metallic taste of blood took over from anything else and I tried not to concentrate too hard on the texture.

When Daryl was finished with the squirrel I watched with my nose wrinkled as he sliced off the ears of the walkers we had killed. I decided that this was another of those things I shouldn't question Daryl on as he strung them onto a shoelace and hung them around his neck.

* * *

We were halfway up the cliff face and my ankle was niggling more than ever, not to mention my makeshift tourniquet was soaked through with blood as the pressure of hauling myself up on branches did no good for the wound.

Glancing above me to see how much farther we had my eyes widened as they fell on the gun I had previously lost. It was hanging two feet about us.

"If you can't stay on a horse, why did you take one?" I panted, finding a part of the rock that I could lean on safely enough.

"Can stay on just fine." Daryl panted back. "Thing got spooked and threw me off."

I watched as he pulled himself up on another branch, I had to admire his determination as I was strongly wondering if I could sleep on a protruding rock for a while.

"Hey, Dixon." I called once more as his grunts subsided, telling me he'd succeeded in getting to the next part of the cliff. "Why the walker ears?"

"Cause I ain't nobodies bitch." He called back after a long moment of silence. I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes at his vague answer and continued on pulling myself up the cliff face behind him.

Another ten minutes had passed and we had progressed slowly up the ridge, Daryl had managed to stretch across a couple of branches and retrieve the gun and when I looked up this time I could actually nearly touch the edge of the ridge.

Daryl's loud grunt told me that he had met the edge of the cliff, once he was up I panted heavily and grit my teeth, pulling myself up as close as I could to the edge and grabbing his hand, I found a solid rock with my foot and used it to push myself up as Daryl pulled.

We both collapsed on the ground, panting and breathing heavily.

"Damn and I thought algebra nearly killed me in school." I muttered, I could have sworn I heard the huff of a laugh.

* * *

After Daryl had shown me he found Sophia's doll and we had decided it would be best to get back to the farm sooner rather than later we found ourselves tracking through the trees once more.

I followed Daryl, letting him lead the way as I tried not to focus on the aching of my ankle.

Just as I could make out the outline of the farm between the trees I lent again the trunk nearest me and took my weight off the ankle.

"I swear if this starts acting up every time I go out on a run I'm gonna be seriously pissed." I breathed, holding my wounded waist at the same time. I looked up to see Daryl limping towards the farm, not listening to what I was saying.

I rolled my eyes once more as I kicked my boot off to study my ankle, it was swollen and slightly bruised but it didn't look as bad as I expected.

Sighing deeply I slipped my foot back into my boot as gently as I could, wincing as I put my foot to the ground again.

My head snapped up, heart beating rapidly for the hundredth time today as the sound of a gunshot met my ears.

"Daryl!" I called, pushing away from the tree and limping forward as quickly as I could.

My breath caught in my throat as I stumbled out from the wood to see Daryl lying on the ground, Dad, Shane, T-Dog and Glenn surrounding him.

"He's not a walker!" I screamed.

"It wasn't us that shot!" Glenn shouted back, holding his hands up.

My heart was in my throat as I limped as fast as I could over to Daryl.

"It just grazed him." Dad reassured me as he and Shane took one of Daryl's arms each and began to drag him back to the farm.

"What did you do to yourself?" Glenn asked in disbelief, grabbing my hand to swing my arm around his shoulders as he took my weight and allowed me to limp forward, T-Dog rushing over to support my other side.

"Fell down a fifty foot cliff, killed three walkers, got impaled on our own weapons." I panted. "Standard day in the apocalypse."

"We were terrified, Andrea and T-Dog arrived back without you we thought you were dead!" Glenn's voice was rising quickly.

"Man, I thought Rick was gonna shoot me then and there when we arrived back without you." T-Dog shook his head.

"I'll explain later, is Daryl okay?" My brow was creased as I focused on Daryls form in front of us, he was like a rag doll between Dad and Shane.

"Think he passed out." Glenn stated.

"We did not go through all of that today for him to get shot by someone who couldn't pay attention, who was on watch?" I growled.

"Andrea." Glenn sighed, hesitantly as he and T-Dog exchanged looks.

"Gimme a break." I snarled, my blood boiling. What was that girl's problem? Why couldn't she just listen to the people who were trained?

As we neared the house I watched as Dad and Shane disappeared with Daryl into the house, Hershel following close behind them.

"Nikki, God what happened to you guys out there?" Andrea asked, rushing forward as Mom pulled me into a hug. I pushed myself against my Mom and Glenn, using their bodies to launch myself at Andrea.

My fist was pulled back ready to snap forward but before I could make contact T-Dog was pulling me away from her.

"Have you actually got shit for brains?" I shouted at her as T-Dog continued to restrain me. "You can't shoot to save your life, you're still in training what makes you think it's okay for you to be on watch!?"

"Nikki, I'm sorry I didn't realize." Andrea stuttered.

"Son of a bitch." I growled as the wound in my side gave a painful throb. "No you don't realize! You won't open your narrow mind long enough to realize that you're so selfish you could actually kill one of us one of these days! You're lucky you're such a shit shot or we'd be digging a grave for Daryl right now!"

I limped into the house, growling under my breath as my entire body ached against my every movement.

I have no idea where my rage came out of but after the day we just had, being shot at by one of our own was something me and Daryl didn't need to be dealing with right now.


	17. Chapter 17

Hershel has bandaged up my ankle, confirming it wasn't broken just needing time to heal and tended to the wound in my side, cleaning it and handing me a bottle of antibiotics.

I thanked him gratefully before hobbling down the hallway of the Greene family home, determined to find out how Daryl was doing. I heard my Dad let out an exhausted breath before I saw him, he opened his arms and engulfed me in a bear hug.

"Don't you ever do anything like that again." He murmured into my hair, I pulled back to arms length so I could look him in the eye.

"If I hadn't done it Daryl wouldn't be with us anymore, Daryl's family now too. I'd do it all over again tomorrow if I had to."

Dad had sighed, nodding his head and placing a kiss on my forehead before continuing down the hall.

I knocked awkwardly on the door of Daryls room, I never pried with Daryl before, always talked when he started the conversation, let him come to me and let him end the conversation without explanation when he wanted to.

A growl sounded from the other side of the door, I took it as a queue to come in.

Gingerly stepping aside, what I hoped was a warm smile on my face, I peeped around the door.

Daryl was lying in the bed, the sheets pulled up to his chin, there was a bandage around his forehead but apart from that he looked good, healthy.

"Are we still keeping score on how many times I saved your ass?" I asked, jokingly. The ghost of a smirk appeared on his face before fading just as quickly.

"Reckon you outdid us both today," He grumbled, pulling the sheets closer to his chin as I moved towards him, taking a seat beside his bed.

An awkward silence filled the room as I studied the floorboards and he scowled at the blank wall opposite him.

"You're going to find her," My voice didn't come out quite as strong as I thought it would, clearing my throat I chanced a glance at him. "You're going to find her but please don't get yourself killed in the process."

Daryl was staring at me in a mixture of confusion and chagrin, his jaw was working furiously as he surveyed me, making me feel slightly uncomfortable, Daryl barely talked to people never mind looking right at them.

"Hershels pissed I took his damn horse." He grunted, I was grateful to him for changing the subject.

"I think you learned your lesson." I grinned. "How's your side? You lost a lot of blood."

"Fine." He lulled back into his normal behavior. "Reckon yours is worse."

"Nah, Carl will be pissed he think he's great cause him and Dad have matching gunshot wounds, wait till he hears we have matching scars from being impaled." I laughed lightly, my side tingling at the movement it caused.

A gently knock came on the door before Carols face appeared from behind it. She had a plate of food in her hand and informed me mine was on the table in the Dining room.

I threw Daryl one last smile before exiting the room and placing myself at the smaller table with Glenn, Maggie, Beth and Jimmy in the Dining Room. I felt like I was put sitting at the kids table at a wedding.

The only noise to be heard for the duration of dinner was the clinking of knives and forks, I felt like I could cut the tension with a butter knife.

It was no secret that Hershel didn't approve of us staying on his land and we were going through his medical supplies faster than intended.

"So does anyone know how to play guitar?" Glenn asked the group at large, the ever positive smile spread on his features. No one answered. "Dale found a pretty cool one, c'mon, someone's gotta know how to play."

For the first time I envied Carl and Daryl, being able to lie in their beds and not have to deal with the tension settling in between everyone.

"Otis did." Patricia muttered. The tension thickening ever so slightly.

"That's right," Hershel nodded gently. "And he was very good at it too."

The clinking of forks sounded again as the tension thickened once more, Glenn turned back towards his food. Looking more defeated than ever.

I hobbled out of my tent to be greeted with sun and everyone awake and working. "You should have woke me." I yawned to Mom as she walked by carrying a load of laundry.  
"You need your rest after yesterday, keep all that strength you have to heal up good." She pointed matter of factly.

I found out Daryl had exited the Green household as early as he could, making his way to his own campsite, far away from ours.

"Do you think he'll ever mix with us?" I asked Glenn, gazing towards the distant shadow in the trees that was Daryl's tent.

"What? Who?" Glenn jumped slightly, his eyes filled with worry.

"Are you okay? You're acting weird?" I asked, concerned, Glenn was never worried.

"I'm not acting weird." He coughed. "Just didn't sleep well."

I watched Glenns back retreating from me before turning back to the shadow of Daryl's tent, my eyes narrowed as Andreas form emerged from it.

"Nikki can you come here please." I heard Dad calling, I scowled towards Andrea one last time before following Dads voice.

He, Dale, Shane and Mom were stood in a circle around Carl whose head was hanging low, concentrating on the ground.

Carl had been deemed well enough to move back outside with the rest of us this morning. I bit my lip to stop from laughing, trust him to be freed of house arrest only to be landed in trouble five minutes later.

"What did he do now?" I sighed, receiving a death glare from Carl.

"Your brother stole a gun." Mom informed me gravely, I could tell she was trying hard not to raise her voice, tensions were already high enough with Hershel's family we didn't need them knowing we were arming inexperienced kids.

"He asked me to train him, he wants to know how." Shane sighed, his hands resting on his hips.

"I say go for it." I shrugged, Mom huffed out a breath but didn't say anything.

"Nikki was about Carls age when we first started training her the basics, she was even younger than that when she was taught about how to hold a gun and use it safely." Dad tried to reason.

"Yeah which I was never told about!" Mom's temper was raising quickly, her breath quivering with the effort the restraint was causing her.

"Well I'm glad of it now," I laughed slightly. "There's not a chance I'd survive in this world if I didn't, I'm one more armed person to protect everyone else too. Shane was the best trainer around he taught kids way younger than Carl."

Mom shook her head in defeat before storming off towards the washing line.

"I think that's the closest thing to a blessing you're gonna get." I shrugged, looking between Shane and Dad.

The trucks were loaded up with every gun we had and people were finding a seat in each one. Dad and Shane had found a decent training spot for those wanting to learn to shoot.

I watched as Glenn muttered an excuse about not coming along, stuttering about mechanics and Dale.

I exchanged a worried glance with Dale as our truck left. It made me feel on edge when Glenn was jumpy, there was obviously something worrying him and that could never be a good thing.


End file.
